Blaze Displaces Six, Firefighters Suffer Heat Exhaustion, Injury

Six people lost their home in a blaze that taxed first-responders who also had to contend with temperatures that hovered around 90 degrees early Monday morning.

The fire broke out on the back porch of a second floor apartment at 787 S. 18th Street, said Capt. John Brown of the Newark Fire Department, and quickly spread to adjacent three-family homes at 785 and 789 S. 18th St. The adjacent buildings were vacant, Brown also said.

The fire went to two alarms before being brought under control around 2:38 am, a little more than an hour after firefighters responded to the area. Two of the buildings, 787 S. 18th St., which was occupied, and one of the vacant structures, 789 S. 18th St., sustained heavy damage.

The six people who were displaced were being assisted by the Red Cross. One firefighter was hospitalized with a shoulder injury and another was treated for heat exhaustion, Brown said.