NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—One week after a raging fire left the home at 127 Louis Street uninhabitable—displacing seven residents—the city’s fire department admitted that two firefighters were injured while attempting to control the blaze.
The fire broke out on June 12 at 7:48pm, according to the New Brunswick Fire Department (NBFD), which said on June 19 that the cause of the fire still remains undetermined.
City officials declined to identify which firefighters were injured. At least one firefighter appeared to be treated for burns on his back shortly after evacuating the burning structure.
“Names are being withheld until injured consent,” said Fire Director Robert Rawls, who noted that both firefighters were treated on scene and then subsequently hospitalized.
Reporter Carlos Ramirez broadcast dramatic video live from the scene, and was the first to report the fact that two firefighters had been injured.
His video showed some firefighters barely making their way out of the structure after evacuation horn had been sounded, and just before a section of the roof collapsed.
Firefighters from New Brunswick, Edison, and East Franklin responded, along with officials from Middlesex County’s Office of Emergency Management and Fire Marshall, the New Brunswick Police Department, PSE&G, and the New Brunswick Water Utility.
“Crews arrived within about three minutes,” Hasahya Hirya, NBFD’s Fire Service Officer, informed the City Council at their June 19 meeting.
Crews apparently had to bail out for their own safety and fight the fire from the outside.
A notice on the damaged building indicates it “is declared unsafe for human occupancy.”
According to Fire Director Rawls, the displaced residents “will be relocated by [the] property owner.”
The home at 127 Louis was built in 1932 and is divided into two units of housing, which are owned by Tony and Fouad Karam, according to property records.
A neighboring home at 125 Louis Street also has some damage to its exterior siding, according to Rawls.
The NBFD alerted the community to the incident at 8:31pm, using its Facebook page to ask residents to avoid the area, but has not posted about the incident again.
None of the city’s other official communications channels were utilized, including the police department’s Nixle emergency alert system.
Repeated inquiries to the city government’s public information officers over the next week yielded no information, until just hours before the Council meeting began.
Charlie is the founder and editor of New Brunswick Today, and the winner of the Awbrey Award for Community-Oriented Local Journalism. He is a proud Rutgers University journalism graduate, a community organizer, and a former independent candidate for mayor of New Brunswick.
