HOBOKEN, NJ – An official plaque will be unveiled Sunday afternoon by the Hoboken Fire Victims Memorial Project in honor of victims past and present.
The event will take place on Sunday, March 12th, 2023, at 2:30 pm In Hoboken, at Tom Olivieri Park, 1225 Willow Avenue.
The official plaque unveiling will honor the victims of the Hoboken Fires from 1979 to 1983.
“It’s been a long time coming,” HFVMP Founder Rosemary Orozco said about Sunday’s plaque unveiling honoring the Hoboken Fire victims. Orozco is a retired nurse who worked at the Hoboken hospital, St. Mary’s, during the fires.
As a result of these fires, 55 Hoboken residents died, many of them attributed to arson. Thousands more went without homes.
Most of the victims were Hispanic women and children. The people responsible for the rampant arson were never convicted, and numerous victims went unidentified in news accounts.
The plaque will be unveiled by HFVMP Founder Rosemary Orozco, HFVMP committee member The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas, Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church, and several other speakers.
The mayor of Hoboken, Ravi Bhalla, with local officials. Janet Ayala, a teen and survivor of one of the Hoboken fires, will speak at the Hoboken Historical Museum on Sunday at 4:00. In the fire, her mother, brother, nephew, and father were killed.
The museum will host a reception afterward.
Funding for the HFVMP plaque came from the Hoboken community and HFVMP committee members.