Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith provided the following update on the warehouse fire last Friday.
At 12:45 PM on Friday, May 16th, the Monmouth Junction Fire Department was dispatched to Victory Packaging at 8-2 Corn Road in the Dayton section of the township for an activated fire alarm for sprinkler system water flow. As first responders were en route, 9-1-1 calls were received from the facility reporting a fire inside the building. First arriving fire chiefs and police officers discovered a heavy smoke condition and a working fire inside the warehouse. Firefighters stretched several hoselines into the building to extinguish the fire, which involved numerous palletized stacks of flattened cardboard boxes and packing supplies. While battling the fire, one firefighter became separated from his crew and was low on air, but was quickly located and removed from the building by fellow firefighters. Shortly later, one of the large stacks of cardboard collapsed due to fire damage and the weight of the water from the sprinkler system and hose lines. The cardboard, weighing hundreds of pounds, struck and injured three firefighters as they operated a hoseline on the fire. The injured were rescued by fellow firefighters who narrowly missed being hit by the collapsing materials themselves. The three firefighters were transported by ambulance to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and were all released by Sunday afternoon. The building was briefly evacuated to account for all firefighters on the scene and to re-group, before firefighters re-entered the building to continue extinguishment efforts.
“This was a particularly challenging fire for crews to fight,” according to Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith. “The fire was deep-seated and very smoky, greatly increasing the danger and amount of manual labor needed to put it out. We are very thankful that the injuries to the firefighters aren’t as serious as originally feared. This incident highlights the dangers to our firefighters, in particular heavy fire conditions, thick smoke creating zero visibility, large floor areas making disorientation highly possible, and the collapse potential for materials as well as the building itself.”
More than 170 firefighters and over 40 fire trucks responded to the fire from 34 Fire Departments throughout Middlesex, Mercer, Monmouth, and Somerset counties. In addition, numerous ambulances from several communities also responded to monitor firefighters and treat those injured. Heavy machinery was ultimately needed to pull apart the collapsed and smoldering materials to allow the fire to be fully extinguished, with all fire units finally clearing the scene around 1:30 AM on May 17th.
The fire is currently under investigation by the South Brunswick Township Fire Safety Bureau.
