™
Officials
said a woman who was in the house
escaped injury from the blaze, which
started about 10:45 p.m.
Firefighters were still hosing down
the shell that remained of the house
late Monday night. Police Lt.
Darrell Furman said at about 11:30
p.m. that it would be at least two
hours before investigators could
start determining cause of the fire.
Residents on each side of the home
were evacuated and streets in the
neighborhood were closed as members
of all four Neptune fire companies
and from Neptune City and Avon
extinguished the blaze.
Jackie Cruz and her husband, Tim
Fagan, who live across the street
from the burned home, were ready to
go to bed when they heard a
crackling noise, like firecrackers,
Cruz said, and saw flames to left of
the house, where the property is
heavily landscaped.
By the time they got to the front of
their house, Cruz said, the flames
were coming out of every window and
part of the burning house collapsed.
"The next thing I knew, the whole
house went up," Cruz said.
"The heat was so intense I thought
it was going to blow up," she said.
Cruz said she called 911, and before
Fagan could run to the burning house
to see if he could help someone, a
woman Cruz said was the owner had
came running out. Fagan then ran to
a house on one side of the burning
home to wake that neighbor, Cruz
said.
The owner of the burning home was
subsequently taken to the hospital
for observation, Furman said.
Lauren Rich, who lives on Prospect
Avenue nearby, said she noticed
embers floating down to her backyard
about 11 p.m., then heard several
fire trucks.
When she ran around the block to see
the fire, all that was standing of
the home was the frame, Rich said.
Ken Northrup, Neptune fire
inspector, said the fire call came
in at about 10:45 p.m., and that
investigators will examine that side
of the house where Cruz first saw
flames.
-- Nancy Kearney
