Fire Rescue News -Family of three dies in fire at Toms River home
By TOM BARLAS Staff Writer | Posted: Saturday, February 27, 2010 | 0 comments
A husband and wife and their daughter died Saturday morning when fire tore through their home on Pine Hill Road in Toms River, officials with the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Authorities said they will not release the victims’ names until next of kin are notified.
Michael Mohel, deputy chief of detectives with the Prosecutor’s Office, said authorities received a....Continue Reading
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911 call about 6:30 a.m. regarding smoke coming from the house, located on a tree-lined residential street near Community Medical Center. A local police officer and two fire chiefs went to the scene, entered the home and pulled out the father, who was dead, he said.
Mohel said detachments from several fire companies eventually arrived and got the fire under control. The other victims were found by firefighters after the blaze was extinguished, he said.
Firefighters found the other two victims on the second floor of the two-story home — the child was under a bed, and the woman in a bathroom.
All three bodies were taken to Community Medical Center, where autopsies will be performed today, Mohel said.
The house suffered significant smoke and fire damage, he said. The cause of the blaze remained under investigation by local police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office.
Neighbor Loretta Ditocco said she smelled smoke at about 6 a.m. and went outside her home but did not see any fire.
“We all have fire places in the area, so you don’t think much when it smells like smoke,” she said. She next heard fire engines at about 7 a.m.
Ditocco said she didn’t know the names of the victims, who had lived in the house for about three years.
“They were very quiet,” she said.
However, Ditocco said she often saw the father playing with his daughter on the front lawn of their home.
“He lived for his daughter,” she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Thomas Barlas: 609-272-7201 TBarlas@pressofac.com
