Two Families Displaced After Apartment Fire

Two families were displaced March 5 after a fire in a Dewald Avenue apartment building.

There were no injuries in the fire, which was discovered by township police at about 2:14 p.m., according to a press release from the police department.

The patrol officers saw a black plume of smoke coming from the area of Hamilton Street and Dewald Avenue and, upon investigating, found the fire in the building’s second storey and people running from the building, according to the release.

The officers were told that everyone was out of one apartment, but that there were people in a second apartment.

The officers then entered the building and evacuated the residents, police said.

Police said that a second building, on Hamilton Street, was evacuated as a preventive measure. The fire did not spread to that building, police said.

Hamilton Street between Baier and Matilda avenues was shut down for about two-and-a-half hours, police said.

Responding were firefighters from Community Volunteer Fire, East Franklin Volunteer Fire, Somerset Fire and Rescue, Middlebush Volunteer Fire, Franklin Park Volunteer Fire, New Brunswick Fire Department and North Brunswick Fire Department, according to the release. Emergency medical units from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, East Millstone First Aid Squad, Hillsborough Emergency Medical Services and Somerville First Aid were also on the scene, according to the release.

Both apartments were deemed uninhabitable and the residents put up in an area hotel, with the help of the American Red Cross, the release said.

The cause of the fire is being investigated by the township’s Office of Fire Prevention.

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