New Brunswick Fire Under Probe
Source: The Star-Ledger, April 25, 2005. Photo: Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger

City firefighters Darrin VanDemark, right, and John Lucario pull back aluminum siding yesterday to make it easier to extinguish flames in the walls of an unoccupied home at 209 Suydam St. The structure was heavily damaged in a two-alarm blaze that might have been the work of an arsonist, a fire official said. New Brunswick Deputy Fire Chief Robert Rawls said the fire ripped through the 2 1/2-story dwelling only a week after the owner put new siding on the home to make it ready for a rental or sale. The fire that spread from the basement to the attic had a good head start before the fire department was called shortly after 2 p.m., Rawls said. ‘‘It was amazing that the guys were even able to stop it, with the amount of fire,’’ he said. ‘‘Our guys did an excellent job. They were actually able to get inside and extinguish the fire.’’ An adjacent building sustained minor damage and no injuries were reported. At least 30 firefighters responded, including firefighters from New Brunswick, North Brunswick, East Brunswick, Franklin and Edison.

Two residents escape as fire damages house
Source: The Star-Ledger, April 20, 2005

PISCATAWAY: Fire officials yesterday were investigating a blaze yesterday that heavily damaged a home on Brett Street, forcing the two residents to relocate. Nobody was injured in the blaze that started shortly after 5 p.m. The residents were home when the fire started, but escaped before flames engulfed the house. The fire was extinguished by 6 p.m. Neighbors said the residents told them of smelling smoke in the laundry room before the fire was discovered. Officials said the cause remained under investigation. About 20 firefighters from the New Market Fire Department were assisted by another 20 firefighters from other township departments, as well as from Dunellen and South Plainfield.

Wood burns at recycling center, Firefighters attempt to bring blazes under control at
Old Bridge facility
Source: Sulman Din/The Star-Ledger, April 20, 2005

Firefighters from several townships struggled yesterday to contain a number of fires burning under three 25-foot-high piles of decaying wood at an Old Bridge wood-recycling center. South Old Bridge Fire Department Chief Bob Verney said firefighters would likely be fighting fires for a week at the former Coffman Tree Service site on Pleasant Valley Road. White smoke billowed from the charred piles of branches, stumps and roots, wisps of flames shot through gaps in the piles, and the air was clogged with the smell of burnt timber and flecks of ash. Heat radiating from the burning piles turned the sky opaque. Firefighters from South Old Bridge, Spotswood, Cheesequake, Monroe, Robertsville, and East Brunswick were on the scene, along with members of the State Forestry Service. Two pumpers blasted water onto the log piles, and crews rotated every 45 minutes. Verney said that there were 30 firefighters on the site. The state forestry service did one aerial drop to prevent the fire from spreading to the surrounding wetlands. But residents were not being evacuated, Verney said. Firefighters were investigating the cause of the blaze, focusing on a backhoe that was working on the pile when it malfunctioned. Its blackened, melted hull remained stranded on the pile giving firefighters the most problems. The wood recycling center has been the site of a number of fires. In October 2001, more than 100 firefighters from Middlesex and Monmouth counties worked round-the-clock shifts for four days to contain and extinguish a blaze at the six-acre Coffman site. The state seized the property in November, and Chatham-based Peterscape Tree Service was given the task of remediating the site, which contains 100,000 square feet of decaying wood. Wes Peterson, owner of Peterscape Tree Service, said he had begun clearing the site of its dead wood just two weeks ago, but had met with Old Bridge fire officials and the DEP to discuss the possibility of a fire breaking out on the site. ‘‘This was expected,’’ he said. ‘‘It probably won’t be the last fire.’’ Peterson estimated that the backhoe was worth $100,000. He said a number of court proceedings had delayed the site’s cleanup. After the 2001 fire, the DEP banned Coffman from taking in more wood until it reduced its stockpile. State inspectors found the company had expanded his operation, spreading onto adjacent county-owned land. Five months later, in March 2002, the ban on accepting wood was lifted, permitting Coffman to bring in debris on his own trucks but not from other tree-removal companies, and the next month, the 100-foot-long piles of wood erupted in flames again. Coffman’s opened in the mid-1990s. Residents living by the wood-recycling center sat on a porch and watched the activity, saying it was so common, they had gotten used to it. ‘‘You let wood lay around long enough, and a fire’s going to start,’’ said Dave Hughes.

Kitchen blaze empties 2 apartment buildings
Source: The Star-Ledger, April 7, 2005

NORTH BRUNSWICK: Tenants were evacuated from two apartment buildings in the Oak Leaf Village complex on Oak Tree Drive early yesterday after a fire started by food left cooking on a stove spread through a second-floor unit, police said. Firefighters from the township, as well as East Brunswick, Franklin, Milltown and New Brunswick, responded to the fire that was reported around 1:50 a.m. in Unit L-12, police Lt. Roger Rienson said. Two tenants were taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where they were treated for smoke inhalation and later released, Rienson said. A township firefighter also was taken to the hospital for treatment of hypertension and later released, the lieutenant said. The fire was brought under control by 2:15 a.m., and tenants later were allowed to return to all but four apartments, police said. Tenants in those units were temporarily relocated.