Fire Rescue News - Police identify family killed in Toms River fire

By BRIAN IANIERI, Staff Writer | Posted: Sunday, February 28, 2010 | 0 comments

As investigators continued to look for answers in the rubble, Ocean County authorities on Sunday identified the three family members killed in a Toms River house fire....Continue Reading

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The quick-moving fire on Saturday morning killed Michael Glynn, 48, his wife Heather, 42, and their 6-year-old daughter Tara, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office.

The cause and origin of the fire remain under investigation, said Michael Mohel, deputy chief of detectives with the Prosecutor’s Office. Investigators were still on the scene Sunday afternoon, he said.

Autopsies were scheduled for late Sunday.

The young family moved into the neighborhood at 32 Pine Hill Road in 2006, according to property records.

Neighbor Theresa Meehan said the family moved from Bayonne to Toms River in search of a peaceful neighborhood in which to raise their daughter.

“She was very cute, she was very outgoing and bubbly and she is definitely missed here,” said Meehan, who lives across the street and whose grandchildren played with Tara.

Michael Glynn, who was born in Ireland, was a union dock worker; his wife was a stay-at-home mother, Meehan said.

“They were very close, they adored their daughter,” said Meehan, who said Tara had been named after the Hill of Tara in Ireland—a prominent site in Irish history.

The family had helped with grocery bags, and invited Meehan’s family over for St. Patrick’s Day dinner, she said.

“They were friendly people,” she said.

At 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, authorities received a 911 call about smoke coming from the two-story house on Pine Hill Road. Upon arrival, police and fire officials pulled Michael Glynn’s dead body from the home.

After firefighters extinguished the blaze, authorities found Glynn’s wife in a second-floor bathroom, officials said.

Tara’s body was found under a bed.

Their bodies were taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River for autopsies.

The home—located in a housing development about a mile west of the Garden State Parkway near mile post 81—sustained significant fire and smoke damage in the blaze.

Posted in BREAKING | OCEAN on Sunday, February 28, 2010 1:15 pm Updated: 3:08 pm.