Post by harmonyfire23jr on Nov 2, 2008 22:54:06 GMT -5
HARMONY TWP. | Blustery weather Saturday afternoon hampered efforts to quell a blaze that destroyed the second floor of a Montana Road home.
Fire officials said gusty winds quickly spread the fire across the top floor of the home. For several hours, small flames fanned by the wind continued to pop up, firefighters said.
"The wind just drove it right across" from the left of the home to the right, said Harmony Township Fire Chief Wes Garrison.
When it was finished, the roof of Darla Waters' farm home was burned away, and the walls dripped with foam sprayed by firefighters.
Waters was away when the fire began and returned as firefighters were wrapping up. She declined to comment as friends comforted her in the standalone garage, where firefighters and emergency responders had set up a rest area shielded from the wind and rain.
Garrison said no one was injured in the blaze, which broke out about 3:45 p.m.
"It could have been a lot worse," Garrison told Waters when she arrived home.
Garrison said the fire began on the second floor, but firefighters managed to keep it from spreading to the level below it. The first floor sustained extensive water damage.
Fire and emergency crews from Belvidere and Stewartsville, and Harmony, Franklin, Pohatcong, Oxford, Liberty and Washington townships, as well as state police, assisted at the blaze.
The cause of the fire was unknown, but it was not considered suspicious, Garrison said. The New Jersey State Police arson unit will investigate the cause, he said.
The fire was reported by a passerby, Garrison said, and some of Waters' friends said they became aware of the fire when they heard it on an emergency scanner.
One friend, who declined to be named, said he called Waters to tell her of the disaster.
"That was a tough call to make," he said.
Fire officials said gusty winds quickly spread the fire across the top floor of the home. For several hours, small flames fanned by the wind continued to pop up, firefighters said.
"The wind just drove it right across" from the left of the home to the right, said Harmony Township Fire Chief Wes Garrison.
When it was finished, the roof of Darla Waters' farm home was burned away, and the walls dripped with foam sprayed by firefighters.
Waters was away when the fire began and returned as firefighters were wrapping up. She declined to comment as friends comforted her in the standalone garage, where firefighters and emergency responders had set up a rest area shielded from the wind and rain.
Garrison said no one was injured in the blaze, which broke out about 3:45 p.m.
"It could have been a lot worse," Garrison told Waters when she arrived home.
Garrison said the fire began on the second floor, but firefighters managed to keep it from spreading to the level below it. The first floor sustained extensive water damage.
Fire and emergency crews from Belvidere and Stewartsville, and Harmony, Franklin, Pohatcong, Oxford, Liberty and Washington townships, as well as state police, assisted at the blaze.
The cause of the fire was unknown, but it was not considered suspicious, Garrison said. The New Jersey State Police arson unit will investigate the cause, he said.
The fire was reported by a passerby, Garrison said, and some of Waters' friends said they became aware of the fire when they heard it on an emergency scanner.
One friend, who declined to be named, said he called Waters to tell her of the disaster.
"That was a tough call to make," he said.