After 3-Alarm Fire Destroyed His Cranford Home, Author William Branley Turns Survival Into Final Chapter of "The Fugazi Kid"

Published by New Jersey Stage
originally published: 11/04/2026

(CRANFORD, NJ) -- On April 11, 2022, a three-alarm fire tore through 106 Orchard Street. Cranford Fire/EMS and Police were dispatched around 7:00pm to heavy fire conditions in the 100 block of Orchard Street. The call escalated to three alarms with mutual aid from across Union County. Three occupants escaped without injury. The family lost two pets. The house was deemed uninhabitable.

That house belonged to William "Bill" Branley.

Branley, a former Cantor Fitzgerald bond trader and vice president of the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences, had spent his career curating five-star illusions — from Wall Street trading floors to six-star luxury suites. On that Monday night, the illusion burned.

Now that night is the ending of his book.

The Fugazi Kid (Koehler Books, November 24, 2026) is a fictional memoir about a professional phony who learns to build a flawless reputation from a flawed soul. It follows him from Tulane University psychology classrooms and the Tulane Green Wave football trenches, through Inside Edition and Cantor Fitzgerald, into the world of International Star Diamond Awards, yachts and celebrity suites.

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It ends not in Manhattan, but back in Cranford — where Branley and his family had to rebuild from the ground up.

"For years I was a professional phony," Branley said. "Then at 7:15 on a Monday, everything that was fake burned away. What was left was real — Cranford Fire running in, the First Aid Squad on standby, neighbors, Girl Scouts Service Unit 48, FLAG for Cranford. No plaque I ever gave out mattered in that moment. That became the last chapter."

ABOUT THE BOOK: 6x9, Biography & Autobiography / Memoirs. Paperback $17.95 ISBN 979-8-89747-361-8; Hardcover $26.95 ISBN 979-8-89747-362-5; Ebook $9.99 ISBN 979-8-89747-363-2. Publisher Koehler Books, distributor Ingram. Pre-orders at Amazon, B&N, Bookshop.org, Walmart.com.

William Branley is a builder of structures and a deconstructor of personas. After studying the mechanics of the human mind at Tulane University, Branley entered the high-stakes pressure cooker of Cantor Fitzgerald, navigating the adrenaline-fueled trading floors of Wall Street. He later moved to the media front lines at Inside Edition, mastering the art of the “reveal” while navigating the manufactured glamour of Hollywood. A former senior project manager at AECOM Tishman, Branley oversaw complex infrastructure projects, including critical Superstorm Sandy resilience and recovery efforts across the New York skyline. He also served as vice president of the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences—a Trump-adjacent organization with deep personal and professional ties to the Trump family—where he vetted global luxury properties for the prestigious International Star Diamond Award.