Woman's Home for 4 Decades Destroyed by Fire

A woman who lived alone in a Changebridge Road home was taken to a hospital to be evaluated after a fire on Monday morning tore through the two-story building where she lived for four decades, family members and a fire official said.

The woman, Emma English, lived in a home next to her brother and his family, and yelled to them there was a fire around 7 a.m., according to her brother, Raul Rodriguez.

Rodriguez said his sister walked away from the fire and appeared to be all right.

The home was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived minutes after the call came in, and volunteers worked for about an hour to extinguish the blaze, Chief Herb Eggers said.

Officials said the occupant described a TV "popping" preceding the fire, but the cause remains under investigation.

Rodriguez said there was no insurance on the house because it was too expensive.

"The situation is bad," he said. "This is going to be a hardship for us."

He said English, who works at the Christine Valmy skin care company on Changebridge Road, lived in the home for about 42 years.

In addition to the Pine Brook Fire Department, firefighters for Montville, Lake Hiawatha, Parsippany District No. 5, Boonton and Montville responded to the scene, Eggers said.

Firefighters . The fire took more than seven hours to extinguish.