VINELAND – Fierce winds supercharged a fire on the front porch of a house Friday morning, giving a couple and their 19-month-old child just enough time to escape before it was engulfed.
Fire Chief Luigi Tramontana on Saturday said the family, still in pajamas, was warned by chance.
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A man, who is a former firefighter, was driving by about 8:50 a.m. Friday. He spotted a small fire on the porch of a single-family house at 1611 East Elmer Road.
Tramontana said the man knocked on the family’s door to warn the occupants. The family’s cats were killed.
“He said by the time he turned around to go get something to try to put it out … it was out of control,” Tramontana said. “He couldn’t even get close to the house.
“I was around the corner,” Tramontana added. “I got there about 2 minutes after dispatch, and the whole front of the house was fully involved. And by the time my first truck got there, the whole house was fully involved. It was pretty crazy.”
Tramontana said there were no casualties, but the house is destroyed. “It’s still standing but the interior is gutted,” he said.
Tramontana said firefighters, once confirming the house was empty, attacked the fire only from the outside.
“The wind was driving it so hard that it actually did some spot (grass) fires about three houses east of the fire that the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and one of my other engines took care of,” Tramontana said.
The cause of the fire still is under investigation.
Tramontana said owner Monica DiMauro and her family lost all their belongings. He said a fundraiser for the family is started on gofundme.com at https://ift.tt/2V1LP13.
Joe Smith is a Philly native transplanted to South Jersey more than 30 years ago. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer at The Daily Journal in Vineland. Have a news tip? Reach out at (856) 563-5252 or jsmith@thedailyjournal.com or follow me on Twitter, @jpsmith-dj. Help support local journalism with a subscription to The Daily Journal.
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House gutted in fire whipped by high winds, family escapes - The Daily Journal
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