By Lauren Otis, Staff Writer
An intractable fire caused by a basement clothes dryer in a Marion Road home Thursday night took hours to put out, with the residence and contents sustaining heavy damage.
”The fact that it was a split-level construction house made it very difficult to get down to where the fire was,” said Princeton Fire Chief Daniel Tomalin.
The fire had been burning under the floor for a while before fire fighters responded, he said.
”It was a very hot fire, and part of the flooring had collapsed,” making fighting it very difficult, Chief Tomalin said.
”On the first floor the flooring had collapsed, which made it very difficult to fight the fire on the inside, so they had to fight it from the outside. It makes it a lot messier,” Chief Tomalin said. “I believe the house was condemned. There is heavy fire damage on the first floor and the basement, and some fire damage on the second floor.”
Firefighters responded to a 911 emergency call a little after 9 p.m. Thursday, according to Chief Tomalin. Deputy Chief Truestar Urian, chief on the scene, called for a second alarm with additional equipment and personnel arriving, Chief Tomalin said.
According to the Princeton Township Police Department, those responding to the scene in addition to the Princeton Fire Department and rescue squad included the Kingston, Rocky Hill, Pennington, Plainsboro and Lawrenceville fire departments; Trenton EMS and the Mercer County Fire Marshall.

