Four people, including a baby and a teen, are dead after a fire rips through a Lacey Township, NJ home – as horrified neighbors describe hearing their screams
A fire ripped through a New Jersey home on Tuesday and killed four people including a baby and a teenage girl.
The blaze happened at a property in Lacey Township where a family of nine, across three generations, were living at around 12.30pm.
Jennifer Wright, 39, Alaina Wright, 34, a 14-year-old girl and a four-month-old baby died in the fire and 67-year-old grandmother Brenda Wright was injured.
Firefighters tried to save them but the roof collapsed and the crews had to evacuate.
Horrified neighbors described their screams and ran towards the house to help get them out of danger.
‘We heard screaming. I was like, ‘Oh my God, the kids are still in the house,’ Robert Juska told CBS News.
A fire ripped through a New Jersey home on Tuesday and killed four people including a baby and a teenage girl
The blaze happened at a property in Lacey Township where a family of nine, across three generations, were living at around 12.30pm
Jennifer Wright, 39, Alaina Wright, 34, a 14-year-old girl and a four-month-old baby died in the fire and 67-year-old grandmother Brenda Wright was injured
He said he ran towards the burning house, climbed over the fence and saw the grandmother hurt.
‘She was coming out of the top window. She jumped down, but she snapped her leg,’ he added.
She tried to get back up up and go back inside to save her family but she passed out near the door, according to the neighbor.
Juska said: ‘So we picked her up and carried her out here and then she was telling us there were four more people in the house and I was like, “Who?” And she was like, “the kids.”‘
Neighbor John Trusso said: ‘All the black smoke was coming over the trees, and within a matter of minutes the whole neighborhood was covered.
‘Smoke all over. It was thick. It was bad, very scary.’
Another panicked neighbor smashed an air-conditioning unit at the home to try and get inside but he couldn’t get past the door.
‘There was so much stuff in the house. When I kicked the back door, it wouldn’t even open,’ he told News 12 New Jersey.
Grandmother Brenda was later taken to Community Medical Center for treatment to her injuries and she is in stable condition.
Firefighters spent the day trying to tackle the burning wood and melted window frames were left of the property.
‘This is an unspeakable tragedy, and our prayers are with the loved ones of these victims,’ Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley Billhimer said in a statement.
It was determined by investigators at local and state agencies that the blaze began on the porch and ‘improperly discarded smoking material cannot be eliminated as the cause of the fire’.
Prosecutor Billhimer said: ‘The cause of the fire has been ruled accidental.’
