Thursday, February 7, 2013
A firefighter collapsed and had to be rescued from a burning building Wednesday night.
The firefighter was taken to St. Clare's Hospital in Denville, and
released Thursday morning in good condition, the Rockaway Township Fire
Department said in a statement about the blaze. It did not disclose the
firefighter's name.
The department was dispatched to 36 Seminole Ave. for a report of a
working structure fire in the house's basement, it said. A township
police officer had been the first person on the scene, and reported fire
was coming from a basement window, extending up the side of the house
and reaching the roof, the fire department said.
White Meadow Lake Company No. 5 and Mt. Hope Company No. 2 responded to
the initial dispatch, it said. Fire Chief Ryan Edwish was on the scene
and called for additional help from Birchwood Company No. 4, as well as a
self-contained breathing apparatus unit from the Hibernia Fire Company,
a rapid intervention crew from the Rockaway Borough Fire Department,
and EMS units from Rockaway Township and St. Clare's, it said.
Edwish used a Fit Pro — a handheld device used to help knock down a
fire without entering a structure — until hose lines could be stretched
from arriving fire trucks, the fire department said. That reduced the
fire extension, and confined the blaze to the basement, it said.
When a township firefighter collapsed, EMS units from the fire
department and St. Clare's transported the firefighter to the hospital,
the fire department said.
Officials believe the fire was electrical in nature, and not
suspicious. An investigation is being conducted by by Fire Marshal Craig
Babcock of the Rockaway Township Fire Prevention Bureau, the Morris
County Prosecutors Office and the Rockaway Township Police Department.
Rockaway Township units cleared the scene at 11:33 p.m., the fire
department said. The house's basement area suffered extensive damage,
and its first flood saw water and smoke damage.
