Willingboro Firefighters Respond to Early Morning House Fire

At 1:53 a.m. on Wednesday, May 14th, Willingboro Firefighters were called to 28 Windover Lane for a house on fire. While enroute to the fire the crews were advised that the police were reporting heavy fire conditions in the rear of the house. Engine 1632 arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the front of the house. Captain Ramsey arrived moments later on Engine 1613 and assumed Command of the incident. He immediately had the communications center place "All Companies In Service".

Captain Ramsey had the crews of Engine 1632 and 1613 pull both a 2" and 2 1/2" handline from Engine 1632 due to the large amount of fire in the home. Ladder 1615 arrived on scene and was ordered to prepare to use its deluge gun since the fire was growing in intensity. Firefighters Blackwell and Carty entered the structure and were aggressively fighting the fire. While inside they encountered "flashover" conditions and were eventually pulled from the structure.

Deputy Chief Vetter arrived on scene and requested a 2nd alarm be dispatched for the incident since the fire was now through the roof of the house. Once the crews were out of the house, 1615 utilized its deluge gun to put over 1000 gallons per minute of water on the fire. Chief of Department Burnett arrived on scene and assumed the Command Position and Deputy Chief Vetter took over the Operations Position.

Later arriving crews from neighboring departments assisted in operating handlines to extinguishing the fire. These crews also used various tools to open up walls from the outside to allow other crews to extinguish the remaining fire. At the height of the fire, close to 50 firefighters were on scene. Firefighters from Delran and Beverly were standing by at Willingboro Fire Headquarters in case of any other emergencies in the township.

The fire was placed under control by Chief Burnett at 2:43 a.m. An investigation into the cause of the fire is being conducted by the Burlington County Fire Marshal's office. The American Red Cross was on scene to help with temporary housing for 2 adults and 4 children. Willingboro Firefighter's cleared the scene at 6:14 a.m.