The largest fire in Monroe FD history, and one of the largest ever in Orange County, occurred on Sunday April 29, 1990. The fire building was a 60,000 square feet Jamesway department store located at the end of a strip mall off of 17m in the Village of Monroe. First arriving units were confronted with heavy black smoke pouring out of the entrance to the store. With reports of possible victims trapped, firefighters began a primary search but were forced out by intense heat and from the heavy fire above their heads. The origin of the fire was detemined to be in the pool chemical area of the store. The fire, fed by 50 gallon drums of pool chemicals, immediately spread into the unsprinklered void space between the ceiling and roof. With fire beginning to break though the roof Chief Sullivan ordered a defensive attack and requested additional aerial apparatus. Mutual Aid was also called in to augment the water supply feeding Monroe's Snorkel (T538) and to supply the incoming ladder trucks. Moments after operations were switched to defensive mode, a structural collapse occurred in the front and side of the building. Truck 538's chauffeur dramatically repositioned the apparatus moments before the front of the building collapsed onto the parking lot. All firefighting efforts shifted to saving the rest of the stores in the strip mall which included another large anchor store (ShopRite). In then end over 20 departments from Orange and Rockland Counties responded at the scene. Through the efforts of Monroe Fire Department and the many Mutual Aid departments, fire was contained to the original building and caused minimal damage to the immediate exposures. Monroe units remained on scene for over 24 hours.

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