Raging Fire Destroys Ewing Township Home [Video]

During the early hours of this morning (Saturday, Dec. 3), volunteer firefighters from all three Lawrence Township fire companies responded into Ewing Township to help battle a raging house fire on Glendale Drive.

First alerted to the blaze at 4:46 a.m., Ewing Township firefighters arrived to find thick smoke pouring from all sides of the two-story dwelling and flames shooting out windows on the first and second floors on three sides, Prospect Heights Fire Co. Chief Jeff Lenarski said.

As crews from Ewing’s Prospect Heights, Pennington Road and West Trenton fire companies went to work, additional firefighters were quickly summoned to the scene from Lawrence Township’s Lawrence Road, Slackwood and Lawrenceville fire companies, Pennington Borough Fire Co., and Hamilton Fire Co. from Hamilton Township.

Due to the heavy fire conditions and with a portion of the house already in danger of collapse, firefighters were ordered not to enter the building and to instead fight the flames from the exterior.

Initial firefighting efforts were hampered by a live electrical wire that fell from the burning house, a neighborhood fire hydrant that failed to operate properly and the morning’s below-freezing temperatures.

Firefighters used half-a-dozen hoselines to fight the fire and worked for about an hour and 20 minutes before the blaze was officially declared under control. With pockets of fire still smoldering within the charred shell of the house, firefighters continued to flow water for several more hours.

Signal 22, the volunteer fire and police canteen unit from Trenton, responded to the fire scene to serve sodas and sandwiches to exhausted firefighters.

Lenarski said there were no injuries and the home’s only resident was away at work when the blaze broke out.

Radiant heat from the fire melted some of the vinyl siding of a neighboring house.

The cause of the blaze is being investigated by Ewing Township and Mercer County fire officials.

Because damage to the house was so extensive - with much of the roof collapsed and floor joists burned through in places - it was not safe for investigators to access some areas, Lenarski said.

While the cause is thus far undetermined, he said, the fire is not considered to be of a suspicious nature.  

Firefighters from neighboring towns, including Princeton and Hamilton, relocated to the Prospect Heights, Pennington Road and West Trenton firehouses to cover Ewing Township during the fire on Glendale Drive and ended up responding to several emergency calls, including a garage fire on Nursery Road.