BY MELISSA CIFELLI
Staff Writer
SCOTT PILLING staff A fire in a home on Wheeler Road in Kendall Park left the building uninhabitable. SOUTH BRUNSWICK — It was a really hot few hours in South Brunswick.
The township was hit with three separate fires between the evening of June 8 and the morning of June 9, leaving seven people homeless.
The first fire, reported at 9 p.m. June 8, engulfed a home on Dawn Court in Monmouth Junction.
The fire, which the South Brunswick Fire Safety Bureau determined was started by a halogen lamp that caused a couch to catch fire, was contained to the living room area. Firefighters from the Monmouth Junction Fire Department extinguished the blaze, but the home suffered extensive water and smoke damage.
According to South Brunswick Detective James Ryan, the homeowner was sitting on a back porch when a neighbor ran to tell him his home was on fire.
No injuries were reported from this incident.
A second fire reported at 7:50 a.m. on June 9 engulfed a home on Wheeler Road in Kendall Park.
Present during the start of the blaze were the homeowner’s 10-year-old daughter, and a 20-year-old son who leaped from a ground level bedroom window to escape the smoke and flames.
The Fire Safety Bureau determined the fire was accidental and started in the dryer. The blaze was contained to the laundry room and garage, but the home was damaged by smoke and water and determined to be uninhabitable.
The homeowners and their four children stayed with friends in the area.
Around the same time early June 9, a fire was reported at the Southern Container warehouse on Corn Road. The fire was contained to a forklift.
No injuries were reported in any of the three fires.