Four units destroyed and 13 families displaced in West Windsor
By: Gwen Runkle
WEST WINDSOR Thirteen families were displaced Monday after an early-morning fire gutted four apartment units and resulted in smoke and water damage to 16 others at the Avalon Watch apartment complex on Clarksville Road.
A three-story, 20-unit apartment building, the first one on Jamie Brooks Drive within the complex, was completely evacuated around 2 a.m. Monday, according to Dennis Huber, chief of the Princeton Junction Volunteer Fire Co.
Township police officers Frank Bal, Peter Hanna and Matt Kemp arrived on the scene at 1:45 a.m., immediately entered the building and began knocking on doors to wake people up, Officer Kemp said.
"My husband and I were woke up at 2 a.m. by someone pounding on the door yelling ‘fire, fire’," a resident from an apartment that burned said, declining to give her name. "I was in my nightgown. It all so happened fast. We had to leave."
More than 12 area fire companies, including the Princeton Junction Volunteer Fire Co., the West Windsor Volunteer Fire Co. and the Plainsboro Volunteer Fire Co., responded to the blaze and extinguished the fire by 4 a.m., said Chief Huber.
No injuries were reported either from residents or emergency personnel, he said.
Four apartments at the south end of the apartment building, three of which face Clarksville Road, sustained the most damage from the fire itself. Mr. Huber said he suspects the fire started on the second floor of that section.
"The whole center section of six apartments has to be removed because they are structurally unsafe," Mr. Huber said. "It will be up to Avalon Watch what is done with the remaining units."
Gary Steinfield, spokesman for Avalon Bay Communities, said the company plans to rebuild the six burned units and will be making repairs to the others.
In the meantime, the company is working to relocate the displaced residents to other Avalon Bay communities in central New Jersey, he said.
According to township police, the American Red Cross of Central New Jersey was providing food, clothing and shelter for some residents at the Marriott Hotel on Route 1.
"We’re going to stay at the hotel in Forrestal Village, thanks to the Red Cross, but after that, who knows," said a resident whose apartment was damaged by the fire.
"We were asked to move to Avalon Run, near Quaker Bridge Mall," said a first-floor female resident, who also declined to give her name.
"The fire didn’t come into our apartment. It’s all water damage in our apartment. The ceiling is soaked. I don’t know how much can be salvaged. We don’t know what to do," she said.
Tom Millar, director of the township Buildings Department, said the total damage could have been a lot worse had the sheetrock fire-separation walls not worked correctly.
"Fire-separation walls separate the sections of apartment units from one another so that fire can’t travel through them," he said. "These were built and inspected correctly, so the other apartments only sustained smoke and water damage."
The building’s smoke-alarm system also functioned correctly, which enabled most of the residents to get out of the building before police and fire units arrived, he said.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, said Sgt. Dave Mansue.
"It does not appear to be suspicious or intentionally set at this point," he said.
The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the West Windsor Police Department are investigating, he added.
Monetary or other contributions to assist victims of Monday morning’s fire may be made by contacting the Red Cross of Central New Jersey at (609) 951-8550.