Blaze guts inside of a large garage
Source: The Star-Ledger, September 1, 2005

MILLTOWN: Police closed a portion of South Main Street for two hours when a garage caught fire, but no injuries were reported, authorities said yesterday. Police shut the street at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when neighbors reported that a large detached garage at South Main Street was burning. Authorities said flames engulfed the interior of the garage and heavy smoke was escaping from cracks in the doors and windows. Police reopened the street two hours later when firefighters doused the blaze. Authorities said there were minimal traffic delays. Officers said nobody was home during the fire, and there were no reported injuries. The fire destroyed the interior of the garage. A 1989 Dodge Daytona was next to the garage but was not damaged. Police said the fire appears to be accidental, but they are still investigating the cause. Officers said a trash can full of saw dust and cigarette butts in the garage may have been the cause.

Boat catches fire while leaving dock
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 23, 2005

WOODBRIDGE: A 25-foot boat docked at a marina off Cliff Road was damaged by a fire yesterday that erupted seconds after the owner filled the gas tank, officials said. Nobody was injured in the blaze that destroyed the twin inboard engine vessel, said Port Reading First Assistant Chief Bruce Horvath. Twenty-five firefighters putout the blaze that was reported shortly before 10:30 a.m. The owner, Vincent Westburg, of Edison, was pulling away from dock when fire started, Horvath said. He was able to jump on to the dock and escaped injury, Horvath said.

Floor work at home ignites fire, injuring 3
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 23, 2005

OLD BRIDGE: Three people were injured in a fire that began when fumes from material being used to refinish a floor were ignited by a pilot light from a gasfired water heater, causing an explosion, police said yesterday. Patryk Trojanor, 23, of Brooklyn, one of the workers refinishing the floor at 8 Harbor Bay Circle, was burned on his arms, chest and head in the fire that was reported shortly before 6 p.m. Friday. He was taken to Bayshore Community Hospital in Holmdel, police said. A second worker, Adam Smoeinski, whose age and hometown were not available yesterday, was also burned on his arms, legs and back, police said. He was taken to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Old Bridge, along with a 15-year-old resident of the home, who was injured when he jumped out a second floor window, suffering lacerations to his arm and legs, police said. None of the injuries was life threatening, police said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze that officials say started accidentally.

Family escapes fire after dog alerts them
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 17, 2005

EAST BRUNSWICK: A pet dog alerted a Harvey Circle family to a basement fire, enabling them to escape uninjured, police said yesterday. The fire was reported about 4:40 p.m. Monday and was contained in the basement, authorities said. There were no smoke detectors, and the homeowner said he and his children discovered the fire when their dog started barking, police said. The fire, which started accidentally, possibly by items being stored near the hot water heater, caused smoke damage throughout the house, authorities said.

Fords Home Destroyed by Fire
Source: Arielle Levin Becker/The Home News Tribune, August 10, 2005

A FORDS HOME was condemned following a structure fire Friday afternoon that led a grandmother to evacuate the house along with the four children she was watching. Jasmine Hasen was watching her two grandchildren and two other children at the Michael Street home. She noticed heavy smoke coming from the basement, and ran across the street with the children. Fire companies from Fords, Woodbridge, Iselin, Keasbey and Port Reading responded to the fire. The circumstances of the fire did not appear suspicious, according to Fords Fire Official Frank Della Pietro III, who said the cause may have been electrical.

Blaze in auto shop described as arson
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 9, 2005

SAYREVILLE: A section of an auto shop on Route 35 was damaged in a fire that police say was intentionally set. Officers responding to a 911 call at 11:21 a.m. Sunday found a storage area at F-1 Motors ‘‘engulfed in flames.’’ Firefighters from the borough’s three companies extinguished the blaze by 11:30 a.m., authorities said. Detective Matthew Bandurski said it appeared that somebody had poured a flammable liquid on the floor and ignited it. No one was injured.

Monroe man who tried to save dog from fire dies 6 days later
Source: Tom Haydon/The Star-Ledger, August 9, 2005

A Monroe Township man died yesterday, succumbing to burns suffered six days ago in a fire that destroyed his home and damaged two adjoining units. Marvin Glaser, 75, was pronounced dead at 3 a.m. in St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, where he had been in the burn unit since the fire in his Oradell Drive home in the Clearbrook Village housing development. Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan, in a statement yesterday, said the fire started accidentally in the one-story home, but the exact cause has not been determined. Neighbors said Glaser had escaped from the burning home at 285B Oradell Drive, but crawled back in, making an unsuccessful attempt to try to save his pet dog. A security guard at the gated development, 22-year-old James O’Kelly, ran into the burning building and carried Glaser out. Nina Stanton, president of the residents association, said she was told Glaser had suffered serious burns before he escaped the home the first time. Stanton said investigators searched the house for Glaser’s pet sheltie, Brandy, and she and other neighbors searched the neighborhood, going door to door asking residents if they had seen the animal, but the pet was never found, Stanton said. Investigators determined the fire started in the garage area of Glaser’s home, said Deputy First Assistant Middlesex County Prosecutor Julia McClure. Stanton said authorities told her the car in Glaser’s garage exploded, and not a propane tank, as was originally suspected. Leaders of the Clearbrook residents association are planning a formal commendation for O’Kelly’s efforts to save Glaser, Stanton said. ‘‘We want him to know we all appreciate what he did, regardless of the outcome,’’ Stanton said. Glaser, who worked as an engineer for Exxon in Linden for 30 years, and then worked for H &R Block for five years, was ap pointed treasurer for his section of Clearbrook Village last year and was elected to that post earlier this year. Glaser also served as chairman of the ritual committee at Temple Shalom in Plainfield. ‘‘It’s difficult for all of us today,’’ Stanton said. ‘‘He devoted his life to helping people.’’ An avid fisherman, Glaser had a 17-foot boat he kept in Rumson, and he and Stanton went fishing twice each week, most recently last July 29, four days before the fire, when they both caught fluke, Stanton said. Glaser grew up in Elizabeth and received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree and doctorate in the same subject from Northwestern University. He was a veteran of the Korean War, serving in the Army and reaching the rank of first lieutenant. His interests included stamp collecting and gardening, and he won awards for his dahlias and chrysanthemums. Glaser is survived by two daughters, Cindy Weiss of Branchburg and Judith Kravitz of Monsey, N.Y.; a brother, Alan Glaser of Maryland; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. A funeral service will be held today at 10 a.m. at the Goldstein Funeral Chapel, 2015 Woodbridge Ave., Edison. Interment will be at Beth Israel Cemetery in Woodbridge. The family requests that donations be made to the American Heart Association, or a favorite charity.

Woman, baby escape from apartment fire
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 5, 2005

PISCATAWAY: A 60-year-old woman and her 1-year-old granddaughter escaped injury yesterday from a fire that started in the kitchen of an apartment, police said. Krishveni Pedda was in the living room of her second-floor Pleasant View Garden apartment on Carlton Avenue with her grandchild about 1 p.m. when she smelled smoke from a fire in the kitchen, authorities said. She ran out with her grandchild in her arms and contacted police. The fire department quickly put out the fire that was confined to the kitchen. There were no injuries, but the cause of the fire remains under investigation, police said.

Blast in Sayreville:  Explosion ravages vacant Hercules plant
Source: Tom Haydon/The Star-Ledger, August 5, 2005

A vacant Sayreville plant was destroyed yesterday by a fire that was apparently sparked by residual chemicals that had been used in the production of gunpowder. More than 120 firefighters from across Middlesex County battled the blaze at the Hercules plant off South Minnisink Avenue. Workers in a nearby Hercules company power plant heard explosions and saw the flames from the burning four-story building about 3:10 a.m., officials said. ‘‘It was a wall of fire,’’ Barry Eck, Sayreville emergency management coordinator, said of the blaze that destroyed a 300-by-100-foot structure, which was part of the building three times that size. Flames soared 100 feet high, and it took firefighters until 8 a.m. to bring the blaze under control, Eck said. The roof caved in, and two walls fell down, he said. One Sayreville firefighter was taken from the scene to Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy about 9:30 a.m. for treatment of heat exhaustion, but no other injuries were reported, officials said. Firefighters still were putting water on smoldering areas late yesterday afternoon, and a small crew was to remain overnight as a precaution, Eck said. Hercules used the building for more than 80 years to manufacture a highly explosive mixture called nitrocellulose, which was used in making gunpowder. The plant has been closed for more than a year. Hercules has removed any stockpiles of the chemical and cleaned the machinery, officials said. The company is demolishing the building. However, during decades of production, the mixture apparently seeped into the wood walls, floors and beams of the building, and the residual chemical apparently went off spontaneously, officials said. Eck said the cause of the fire is was still being investigated yesterday, but it did not appear the fire was started intentionally. Hercules, which opened the plant in 1911, sold a section of the facility to Green Tree Chemical Technologies in 2000. Hercules continues to operate a separate plant about two miles away, off Cheesequake Road, manufacturing natrosol, a thickener used in latex paints. When Green Tree went out of business in November 2003, Hercules regained possession of the South Minnisink Avenue complex, recouping whatever resources were available and beginning t h e cleanup of the property. Hercules had started demolishing the nitrocellulose production plant two weeks ago, said Paul Tuck, Hercules plant manager. Nitrocellulose is so volatile that buildings in which the mixture was made still have to be wet down daily with hoses to prevent residual chemical from drying out and exploding. Until December, Hercules had workers on two shifts wetting down buildings. Frank Terzino worked on one of the shifts that hosed down the building, but he was laid off in December when Hercules reduced its work force. ‘‘We were doing a fire watch,’’ Terzino said of his assignment at the plant. He alleges Hercules was aware of the danger from the chemicals but still cut the work force. ‘‘Hercules knew this was a time bomb.’’ Tuck said the work force was reduced after all the supplies of nitrocellulose had been removed and the production equipment cleaned. Crews were still wetting down the buildings daily, Tuck said. Eck said he recalled fires from decades ago that burned for days on the company’s 700-acre complex. The building that burned yesterday was nearly half a mile off South Minnisink Avenue and the nearest house. Tuck, who praised the firefighters’ quick response, said Hercules will tear down about 90 buildings on the site within the next six months. The power plant, from which workers first saw the fire early yesterday, will be shut down in two weeks, when a new power plant opens in the complex off Cheesequake Road, Tuck said.

Hercules plant manager Paul Tuck, second from right, talks with firefighters monitoring the site in Sayreville. Officials believe residual chemicals used in the making of gunpowder set off the explosion. Photo: Noah K. Murray/The Star-Ledger

Piscataway Home Damaged in Blaze
Source: Mary Ann Bourbeau/The Home News Tribune, August 3, 2005

The cause of a fire that damaged a Runyon Avenue home Sunday evening was an attic fan, police said. No one was home when the fire broke out at 7:20 p.m. A neighbor saw smoke and called the Fire Department. Flames were coming from the attic when firefighters arrived, police said. The single-family home sustained minor damage to the attic area, and the fire was ruled accidental, police said.

Monroe man, 81, critically hurt in fire: He went back inside to save his dog
Source: Tom Haydon/The Star-Ledger, August 3, 2005

An 81-year-old Monroe man was critically injured when he crawled back into his burning home in an unsuccessful attempt to save his pet dog and then had to be rescued himself. Marvin Glaser had nearly passed out on the floor of his home in the Clearbrook housing development Monday night when 22-year-old security guard James O’Kelly, searching through the thick smoke, bumped into him on the floor, picked him up and carried him outside. ‘‘He was still talking. He was more concerned about his animal than his house,’’ O’Kelly said yesterday as investigators sifted through the fire scene on Oradell Drive, seeking the source of the blaze that destroyed Glaser’s home and badly damaged the homes on either side of his house. Gabe Hockberger, who lives in an adjacent house, said he smelled smoke, dashed to his neighbor’s home and could see Glaser in his house surrounded by black smoke. ‘‘He was moving around in the house. I could only see him for a moment in the smoke. The smoke was thick — I couldn’t see my cell phone (to dial),’’ Hockberger said. Wendy Malmid was in her home at 9:15 p.m. Monday when she saw ‘‘flames shooting through the roof’’ of Glaser’s home several houses away. Malmid called for help, and she and her husband, Stuart, rushed to the house. Stuart Malmid went to the back of the house, where he found Glaser on the ground. ‘‘He said, ‘My dog, my dog.’ I said you’re more important than the dog, and I told him move away from the house,’’ Malmid said. Glaser crawled back about 20 feet, and Malmid went to get help. Glaser, who lives alone, apparently crawled back inside to look for his dog, Brandy, a sheltie he had gotten a month earlier. When O’Kelly arrived, Stuart Malmid directed him to Glaser in the backyard. But O’Kelly didn’t find anyone when he went there. He opened the screen door and walked in about 12 feet. ‘‘I bumped into (Glaser) with my feet. He was almost passed out. I picked him up and carried him on my back outside,’’ O’Kelly recalled. Asked if he thought about the danger of entering the burning building, O’Kelly yesterday said, ‘‘my mother was yelling at me about that this morning.’’ ‘‘I’ll tell you what I said to her: I think I was thinking with my heart instead of my mind,’’ said O’Kelly, a recent graduate of Kean College with a degree in criminal justice. Employed by Marion Security Agency of Red Bank for about three months, O’Kelly was hailed by residents of Clearbrook, an age restricted community. Glaser, a Clearbrook resident for about 12 years and the treasurer for residents in one section the development, was taken by helicopter to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and then transferred to the burn unit at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. He was in critical condition at the medical center yesterday. Flames from the fire, which started either in Glaser’s house or his attached garage, reached 40 feet high and could be seen across the development, said Nina Stanton, president of the Clearbrook Community Association, which represents residents. A propane tank in the garage blew up in an explosion heard across much of Clearbrook, residents said. Glaser’s charred car, with the wheels melted off the rims, sat yesterday in the driveway in front of the remains of his house. Authorities yesterday said the fire appeared to have started accidentally. About 50 firefighters from Monroe, Cranbury, Plainsboro and Hightstown were at the scene and had the fire under control within about 20 minutes, said James Carbin, captain of Monroe’s Fire District 2. Authorities and witnesses said Glaser’s dog had not been found yesterday and may have run from the house. Glaser, a retired Exxon engineer, also had worked as a tax adviser with H &R Block, Stanton said. She said he is an avid fisherman.

Betsy Koch and Jeffrey Quin talk to a passer-by about the fire that damaged three units in the Clearbrook development. Photo: Christopher Barth/For The Star-Ledger

Senior ‘critical’ after fire hits 2 homes
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 2, 2005

A resident of a senior citizen housing community in Monroe was critically injured last night in a fire that destroyed two homes, authorities said. Marvin Glaser, a resident of the Clearbrook retirement community, was initially taken to Robert Wood Johnson in New Brunswick, where he was listed in critical condition. Glaser, believed to be in his 80s, was then transferred to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. The fire, which destroyed Glaser’s home as well as the one next to it, broke out about 10 p.m., said James O’Kelly, a security guard at the complex. The cause of the fire was not known, nor was it known whether the blaze started in Glaser’s home, located at 285-B Oradell Drive. The person living in the adjacent, attached unit was not injured, O’Kelly said. The fire was extinguished in about an hour, O’Kelly said. O’Kelly said he grabbed a blanket and ran into Glaser’s house, locating the elderly man on the living room floor. He then managed to carry the man out. There are several hundred units in the Clearbrook complex, which is an age-restricted community. Residents must be at least 55 years old.

Youths charged with car break - ins
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 2, 2005

WOODBRIDGE: A 17-year-old township youth and a 12-year-old Perth Amboy juvenile face charges of breaking into nine cars and using flares taken from a car to burn a vehicle and damage the side of a house, police said yesterday. Police arrested the youths about 11 p.m. Thursday while officers were investigating a report of break-in of a car on Aspen Court that set off an alarm. The suspects were found nearby, police said. Two flares were thrown at a house on Freeman Street, damaging a window and shrubbery, and two other flares damaged the hood and windshield of a car on Barron Avenue, police said. The suspects were being held yesterday in the Middlesex County Juvenile Detention Center in North Brunswick.

Pipe breaks, spills gas in lot and street
Source: The Star-Ledger, August 2, 2005

WOODBRIDGE: Nearly 750 gallons of gasoline leaked from a pipeline at the Motiva Enterprise Terminal, spilled into the parking lot and spread onto State Street, police said yesterday. Authorities said the leak occurred when the driver of a tanker-truck struck the pipeline at 10:35 p.m. Saturday. Police closed off a section of State Street and firefighters spread foam over the gasoline to prevent any fire, authorities said. A cleanup crew from Atlantic Response in Carteret removed the fuel, authorities said.