Neighbor listed as critical after helping out at fire

By jennifer dome
Staff Writer

Neighbor listed as critical
after helping out at fire
By jennifer dome
Staff Writer

SOUTH RIVER — A borough resident remained in critical condition this week after suffering a heart attack while helping neighbors escape from their burning house last Thursday night.

All five residents of the Maple Avenue home, including three girls, ages, 8, 10 and 11, and their parents, escaped with the help of police and fire officials, as well as neighbors.

One neighbor, Paul Kern, 46, of Leroy Street, reportedly suffered a heart attack after he helped get the three girls out of the house through an upstairs window.

Borough Fire Chief Charlie Matts said that Kern helped emergency officials and neighbors put a ladder up to the house and take the three girls to safety. Soon after, Kern collapsed on the corner of Maple Avenue and Watts Street, Matts said.

Kern was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, where he remained in critical condition yesterday, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

Police reports said that officials later learned from the man’s wife that Kern went to the scene of the fire after he heard screaming at the Maple Avenue home.

The fire, which broke out around 9:25 p.m., was contained to the laundry room on the first floor of the home, Matts said.

It took about 15 to 20 minutes for approximately 30 members of the South River Fire Department to put out the blaze, with the help of the East Brunswick Fire Department and Sayreville Engine Co. No. 1, Matts said.

Officials determined the cause of the fire to be a failure or short in the gas dryer that was located in the laundry room, police reports said. Because of the extensive damage there and the smoke damage throughout the home, the borough’s building inspectors deemed the house uninhabitable until repairs could be made, according to police reports.