By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY Volunteer fire stations from Montgomery, Rocky Hill, Hopewell and Hillsborough responded to a first alarm fire at the Secondary School Admission Test building at 862 Route 518 in Skillman on the evening of Feb. 12.
Bill Ballinger, chief of the Montgomery Fire Company No. 2, reported that no one was injured and there was minimal damage.
Officials stated the final cause is undetermined, but is related to a malfunction in the power supply system in the basement. They know the malfunction started the fire, but are uncertain what that malfunction was.
The power in the building was expected to be back on Tuesday morning at the latest.Mr. Ballinger said the initial call came in at 7:03 p.m. as a fire alarm in which his station and the Rocky Hill Hook and Ladder station both responded.
”Ninety percent of the time fire alarms are false alarms, but we always handle them as if they’re not,” he said. “This was a perfect example of that.”
Mr. Ballinger said when they arrived on the scene they found a light amount of smoke on the roof and on the first floor and heavy smoke near the basement with zero visibility.
This prompted them to upgrade the fire alarm to a first alarm structure assignment. Mr. Ballinger estimated that around a total of 40 to 50 firefighters and support personnel worked to extinguish the fire for roughly three hours.
Firefighters extinguished the fire with a small amount of water and CO2 fire extinguishers, making damage minimal and preventing further damage.
”It’s been a while since we had a fire of this caliber that came in as a fire alarm. The good news is everything worked perfectly,” said Mr. Ballinger. “My guys did a marvelous job.”

