NJ.com photo 2/6/20
The fire broke out on the third floor of this house, 45 Broadway, and one male resident was killed; his wife was badly injured.
Two first responders were treated for minor injuries.
From the APP: “The American Red Cross New Jersey Region said it was helping four people in three families with temporary lodging, food and clothing.”
The authorities say that the fire is not suspicious, but it has been all too frequent in the Grove when fires break out in winter and in the early morning hours.
If any of you have more information, please comment below.
Blogfinger has been following the history of OG fires since our founding in 2009. This is the first fatality that we have reported.
The history of fire investigations here is that the authorities rarely announce their conclusions, and sometimes those findings seem a bit far fetched as when the Manchester Inn burned down after workmen were fiddling with flammable components in the basement on the day of the fire. That fire was ruled an accident.
And the White Whale was said to have burned (2019) due to vagrants in the building, but did they really rule out arson?
The same sorts of questions came up with the Warrington fire where, I think, they have yet to finalize the report, and the matter is still under litigation. The “feds” (ATF) were involved in this investigation. They did agree that arson was involved, but we don’t know if their investigation is complete.
This fire makes you wonder about smoke alarms up on the third floor. If these were rental units, had the Neptune Code department recently checked the fire safety in that building?
You can read some of our articles about OG fires by using the search box at the top right of our home page.
–Paul Goldfinger, Editor.