Two-alarm fire levels Ewing home

by Michael Ratcliffe/The Times http://www.nj.com

 

EWING -- A raging two-alarm fire reduced a township home to rubble Saturday morning.

The home on Broad Avenue, near Charles Street, was already completely engulfed in flames when the Ewing firefighters were first alerted to the blaze about 10:45 a.m.

A second-alarm was immediately transmitted, summoning help to the scene from Lawrence, Hopewell Township and Pennington.

The heat from the blaze was so intense that it melted the siding on the house next door. Firefighters were able to save that house from further damage by training hoses on it.

 

Two ladder trucks, meanwhile, poured water down on the first house, which soon collapsed.

Battling the blaze were crews from the Pennington Road, West Trenton, Prospect Heights, Lawrence Road, Slackwood, Lawrenceville, Union-Titusville and Pennington fire companies.

Ambulance crews from Ewing, Trenton and Pennington were on scene but there were no immediate reports of any injuries.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation at this time by Ewing police and the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

 

Family escapes destructive house fire in Ewing

By LISA CORYELL
STAFF WRITER, Trenton Times, http://www.nj.com

EWING — The terrified screams of a 7-year-old girl helped a family flee a raging house fire that reduced their Broad Avenue split-level home to charred rubble yesterday.
Four adults and two children escaped unharmed as soaring flames engulfed the home of Larry and Debbie Montgomery.
According to reports, the family's granddaughter went into a first floor den to watch cartoons shortly before 11 a.m.
"She heard crackling in the walls and saw fire and started screaming," said Ewing Police Sgt. Karl "Chip" Bartkowski.
The child's screams alerted Larry Montgomery, who ushered to safety his wife, the couple's two adult children and two grandchildren, all of whom live there.
The fire, believed to be electrical in nature, quickly spread through the house.
"In 15 minutes, the whole house burned to the ground," said neighbor Joyce Raywood. "It went up like a bonfire."
Raywood and her husband had to evacuate their home when flames started licking the vinyl siding of their home.
"I was shaking," Joyce said. "The heat was so intense I had to move one house down. The firemen were so nice. They gave me water and they tried to reassure me that my house would be okay."
Forty firefighters from Lawrence, Ewing and Hopewell Township battled the blaze.
"They did their best, but there was not a lot we could do," said Matt Kalnas, chief of the Pennington Road Fire Co. "By the time we got there, the fire had already engulfed most of the house."
The towering flames burned tree limbs some 60 feet off the ground and left only the chimney where the house once stood.
Flames also burned the front ends of two cars in the driveway of the gutted home and melted the siding off the Raywoods' home next door. The heat was so intense it buckled the vinyl siding of the house across the street and melted the emergency lights on one of the fire trucks, Kalnas said.
While the accidental fire appears to have been electrical in nature, no official cause will be named, Kalnas said.
"The house was so badly damaged they weren't able to come up with firm findings," he said.
The heat and intensity of the fire was fueled by the wood paneling throughout the house, Kalnas added.
"The fire moved very, very quickly," he said. One firefighter was sent to the hospital to be treated for dehydration and heat exhaustion, Kalnas said.
The American Red Cross was called in to provide assistance to the family but it was unclear last night where they are staying.