Fire Rescue News - Fire consumes a dozen units at storage facility on Fire Road in Egg Harbor Township; cause still unknown
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP - A fire reduced the contents of several storage units to ash Monday afternoon.
Investigators have not yet determined how the blaze broke out shortly before 1:40 p.m. in a locked unit at the Storage Inn, on the 2500 block of....Continue Reading
(If you listen to the Call Recording 1min 11 sec in you hear the possiable cause of the fire)
Call Recording
This is a VOX recording. It is condensed and not in real time.
Fire Road in the Farmington section of Egg Harbor Township.
Before firefighters started sawing their way through the metal, pull-down door of unit 1111, where the fire started, facility owner Greg Meckel warned them that the spaces could contain anything.
"And they're filled to the roof. It's not like they've got just a couple of items," Farmington Fire Company Assistant Chief Leonard Tilley said.
More than 500 pounds of pesticides and fertilizer sat in bags stacked about 6 feet high in an adjacent unit. Another one contained cans of gas and kerosene, along with other items, Tilley said.
The walls between individual storage spaces do not reach all the way to the ceiling, so flames spread relatively easily and had overtaken a dozen units within the approximately 45 minutes it took to contain the fire.
Two hours after the fire was reported, none of the affected renters had arrived at the 31-year-old compound, but Meckel said he was in the process of contacting them.
Investigators will not know when unit 1111 was last opened, or by whom, until they review the facility's surveillance feed, Tilley said.
Egg Harbor Township Police blocked Fire Road between Delilah Road and Pear Street until 7 p.m., police said.
The Bargaintown, Scullville, Cardiff, West Atlantic City and Farmington fire companies responded, along with the Northfield, Pleasantville and Absecon fire departments and Bayview Fire Company. Absecon and Galloway also sent Emergency Medical Services squads.
Contact Emily Previti:
609-272-7221