BREAKING NEWS: Local Storeowner Killed in Leonia Blaze

The Parisenne Bakery has become a major stopping point for food and socializing on Main Street, but it is the scene of another kind of activity today, as regulars stopped to mourn the sudden death of Hirokazu Sano last night in a fire at his home. The bakery is housed in the same corner building as the VFW Post (right on the corner of Center Avenue) where the newly established Veterans' Square is located.

The owner of a Fort Lee pastry shop was killed this morning in a fast-moving fire that quickly engulfed his Leonia home. Witnesses said the flames were 40 feet high.

Hirokazu Sano, 48, apparently was alone when the blaze broke out shortly before 4:30 a.m.

“There were flames 40 feet high,” said next-door neighbor David Ash, 64, who watched from outside his Highwood Avenue home on the otherwise quiet dead-end street. “I never saw such high flames from a house fire.”

The full article is in today's Record, the photo gallery really shows the level of devastation that ripped through that house.