By Philip Sean Curran
Staff Writer
Law enforcement personnel are investigating a three-alarm fire that broke out shortly before midnight on July 16 at a vacant house at 140 Hodge Road, Princeton, and sent two firefighters to the hospital.
The fire was reported at 11:50 p.m. and some 19 fire companies from Mercer, Somerset and Middlesex counties responded.
Robert Gregory, municipal director of emergency and safety services, said on July 17 that the fire started in the back of the house in the area of the second and third floors.
The residence, built in the 1920s, spanned about 5,900 square feet, Gregory said.
“It was a lot of heavy timber construction,” he said.
He said it took a little more than an hour for the fire to be brought under control. There was no damage to neighboring residences.
“The house suffered a fair amount of fire damage,” Gregory said.
Two firefighters, one from the Lawrence Fire Department with a respiratory problem, and one from the Princeton Fire Department with a cut to his left index finger, needed to be hospitalized, Gregory said. Both firefighters were treated at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center, Plainsboro, and released, he said.
The town, the Princeton Police Department and the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office are investigating what caused the fire. Authorities did not give a timeframe for when they expect the investigation to conclude.
Municipal tax records showed the property is owned by NYC REO LLC, with an assessed value of $2.539 million.
“Apparently, from what we’re told, the house has been for sale for a couple of years and it has been vacant for the last couple of months,” Gregory said. “Nobody was in the home.”