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UPPER FREEHOLD: Man killed in farmhouse fire

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   UPPER FREEHOLD — An unidentified man was killed in a fire at a vacant farmhouse on Imlaystown-Hightstown Road on Thursday night, state police said.
   New Jersey State Police Sgt. Adam Grossman said it was not known if the victim is the same man who reportedly started a small fire in an upstairs bathroom inside the Happy Apple Inn about two miles down the road earlier in the evening.
   The inn’s employees quickly put out that paper fire as the man made an unsuccessful attempt to break into the cash register before fleeing.
   The farmhouse fire occurred at 110 Imlaystown-Hightstown Road, part of the Assunpink Bait & Tackle property, and was called into 911 at 9:20 p.m. The Hope Fire Company of Allentown and firefighters from several other area departments, including Robbinsville, responded to the scene.
   ”When they went inside they located a male near a rear door and removed him,” Sgt. Grossman said. “He was then pronounced deceased.”
   The identity of the victim had not been released as of Friday afternoon. The cause of the fire is under investigation, Sgt. Grossman said.
   Pat Farrell, head chef at the Happy Apple Inn, said a man who started a small fire inside the restaurant’s second-floor bathroom Thursday night had been trying to create a smoky diversion in order to steal from the downstairs cash register.
   ”It was a small paper fire, toilet paper,” Mr. Farrell said. “He tried to break into the cash register during it all, but he couldn’t get it open, and then he ran out the door.”
   Mr. Farrell said the man who set the fire at the restaurant had been a customer who had a beer at the bar, left, and then came back later in the evening and began causing trouble.
   ”He was pretty normal when he was here the first time,” Mr. Farrell said. “But when he came back later he was acting all crazy, talking to himself, and wandering around the place.”
   Sgt. Grossman declined to say whether the body found inside the vacant farmhouse might be the same man involved in the Happy Apple Inn incident.
   ”That’s under investigation,” Sgt. Grossman said.
   Jeremy Wyckoff, the volunteer fire chief of the Hope Fire Co. who was at the farmhouse blaze on Thursday night, was not available at the fire station on Friday. Firefighters on duty referred press calls to the state police.
   The Happy Apple Inn sustained no damage in the earlier fire and was open for business on Friday, Mr. Farrell said.