Body found in rubble of Union City fire identified

CLIFFVIEW PILOT HAS IT FIRST: A 55-year-old missing man's body was found in the rubble of a massive wind-swept fire that destroyed six buildings on Bergenline Avenue in Union City and damaged two others.

The family was notified and was expected at the county Medical Examiner's Office, a source with direct knowledge of the discovery told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

As of 2 a.m., investigators didn't know why Evaristo A. Guerra Buxadera of 25th Street in Union City was in the basement of 2105 Bergenline Avenue, the source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

Workers found his body there while pumping out water around 7:30 Thursday night, he said.

"The remains were taken to street level, where identification was found in his wallet," the source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.

It took firefighters until around 8:15 this morning to fully extinguish the blaze that erupted at 2103 Bergenline Avenue around 10 o'clock Wednesday night and quickly spread to several neighboring structures.

The string of three-story buildings contained apartments and businesses. Alarms brought firefighters from Hudson, Bergen and even Essex County.

More than a dozen minor injuries were reported, and authorities did know that the body of the man who was found had been unaccounted for in the blaze, the source told CLIFFVIEW PILOT.