By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
HIGHTSTOWN The fire tore through the house for only 20 minutes, but the consequences for the family who lived there will be felt for much longer.
The owners of the Orchard Avenue home had just returned from grocery shopping to see the house consumed with flames, and they watched in tears as everything in their lives went up in smoke, according to a neighbor.
At 1:59 p.m. Sunday, the borough volunteer fire department, along with fire brigades from East Windsor, Millstone, Monroe and Robbinsville, responded to a house fire on the 100 block of Orchard Avenue, said borough Fire Chief Larry Van Kirk.
The blaze started in the kitchen, and Chief Van Kirk said it was “unintentional and not suspicious.” He added the investigation was continuing.
While there was no structural damage to the home, the kitchen sustained heavy damage, and there was smoke and heat damage to the rest of the first and second floors, the chief said.
No one was home at the time of the fire, and with all the damage, no one is going to be home for some time, according to the chief.
The family who lived at the house now is residing in a Cranbury hotel while the local community is coming together to donate money and items in order to help them get back on their feet.
”It’s devastating to see a young family with two small children go through this,” said South Main Street resident Lynn Wallace, one of the neighbors spearheading the effort to help the family. “They’ve only been in the house a couple of years, and we wanted to do something for them.”
So she, along with neighbor Cathy Simmons and others, began organizing Monday night, and Ms. Simmons sent a letter out to a number of people in the neighborhood asking them to donate whatever they could.
”Everything in their home is either fire-, smoke- or water-damaged … They don’t even have a hairbrush, let alone clothing,” Ms. Simmons wrote in the letter.
”Let us gather together now to help one of our own,” she added.
Ms. Wallace said she had no idea her neighbors would respond so quickly and urgently.
”I’m overwhelmed by the generosity of our neighbors,’ she said. “This is a hard time economically for everyone, and everyone’s been so generous.”
Among 25 residents, Ms. Wallace said she’s collected about $1,000 so far. Ms. Simmons said she was able to garner gifts from about 10 additional people.
And the Peddie School, where one of the family members works as a nurse in the school’s health center, also is pitching in. School spokesman Sean Casey said Peddie is providing home-cooked meals and holding a clothing drive so the family can have something to wear over the next few months beyond the clothes on their backs. The school also has been collecting gift cards so the family can buy some things they need during their crisis, he added.
The family, which could not be reached for comment, will likely be able to move back into the house because it only sustained interior damage, and the basic structure is still standing, Chief Van Kirk said.
”The building materials used in this house were so good it won’t have to be knocked down. It was the best building materials you can get,” he said.
However, that proved to be a double-edged sword as the structure wound up holding much of the heat inside the house and perpetuating a “tremendous amount” of heat damage inside, Chief Van Kirk added.
Three firefighters were injured while fighting the blaze, the chief said. Two were taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton; one suffering from smoke inhalation; the other from chest pains due to excess strenuous activity, according to Chief Van Kirk. They were treated and released, he said.
A third drove himself to the same hospital a few hours later with a sore knee and was treated and released as well, the chief said.
Anyone wishing to donate cash or gift cards to help the family is asked to contact Cathy Simmons at Old Hights Print Shop at 177 Mercer St., Hightstown, or by calling 443-4700.

