About 75 firefighters from across Middletown Township rushed to help extinguish a house fire in a neighborhood off King’s Highway Thursday afternoon. Fortunately three occupants evacuated the house safely and were unharmed, according to spokesman John Isaksen.
According to the Fire Dept., the entire rear section of the two and a half story, wood framed, single family residential structure was fully engulfed in fire when firefighters responded to the 4:05 pm. call. Department Deputy Chief John Gorsegner, declared the fire under control at 4:50 p.m., and firefighters cleared the scene by 6 p.m.
To attack the fire, Old Village Fire Company volunteers had immediately deployed a 2 and a half inch hose line and began attacking the large body of fire, while crews from Community Fire Company entered the front of the building and used several hand lines to aggressively attack the blaze from the interior. Middletown Fire Company deployed their aerial platform to assist with extinguishing the fire in the rear of the structure.
First Assistant Fire Chief Anthony Citarella said, “After the initial fire was knocked down, we pulled everyone out of the building and evaluated the structural integrity of the severely burnt portion. We wanted to make 100% sure that it was safe for the firefighters to work inside the building.”
After it was determined that although some of the roof trusses had been burnt, the structure was not in danger of sudden collapse, the firefighters re-entered the house and completed putting out the fire, said Chief Citarella.
The fire is being investigated by the Middletown Township Fire Prevention office.
The firefighters represented 6 companies of the Middletown Township Fire Department (Old Village, Middletown #1, Community, Belford Engine, East Keansburg Fire, and Lincroft Fire Companies).
Assisting on the scene were the Middletown Township Fire Department’s Air Support. The Middletown, Port Monmouth, and Lincroft Aid Squads stood by during the incident.
Just last week, the Middletown Fire Department had conducted a Command, Control and Accountability training session with the North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue. Many of the skills and techniques learned at that session were used at the scene of the Brandywine fire, said officials.
