Fire Damages Belleville Gift Store

Firefighters broke through the front window of a gift store on Franklin Avenue on Sunday morning to extinguish a blaze that engulfed the front of the shop with flames, a fire official said.

The fire in The Perfect Gift was a reported at 5:39 a.m. by a caller who noticed the flames and firefighters responded to the location, which is near fire headquarters, in about a minute, Belleville Fire Capt. Scott Wentworth said.

Firefighters forced their way into the building, ran hose lines and had the fire under control at 6:12 a.m., he said.

No injuries were reported and no other businesses were affected by the fire, Wentworth said.

It was the second fire in 24 hours for the department, which extinguished a fire in the attic of an Emmet Street home on Saturday morning that displaced two families.

The Perfect Gift, 353 Franklin Ave., was closed at the time of the fire. The business suffered moderate fire damage throughout the store, Wentworth said.

The blaze appears to have started near the front of the store and the cause is under investigation. Nutley and Bloomfield fire departments assisted at the scene.

Wentworth said Belleville firefighters effectively battle both fires over the weekend.

"They did very well and both fires quickly went out," Wentworth said.