MILLVILLE - An Oak Street man went for overkill to solve an insect problem Thursday morning and ended up destroying his house, a fire official said. Eleven firefighters responded to the 300 block of Oak Street at 11:01 a.m. after the resident set off "bombs," or cannisters of insecticide, to kill the bugs in his home, the fire official said. He used many more than recommended by the manufacturer, and the pilot light from his stove ignited the fumes and caused an explosion, the fire official said.
No one was injured, but the city construction official condemned the house, the fire official said.
BUENA BOROUGH - The town's emergency dispatch is at a crossroads. Two months ago, the borough's nearby neighbor, Buena Vista, said it no longer would use Buena Borough's dispatch center to handle emergency calls.
Now Buena's leaders say they are considering a plan that would move the center to the other end of the county. And one local dispatcher says any future plan has to account for how the area's volunteer fire companies operate.
Even though the wildfire that tore through Wharton State Forest last week burned almost 2,000 acres, many people in the pinelands still believe in using fire as a management tool.
The evidence that the forest is capable of handling a fire is certainly compelling. Pine cones won't open until they reach a certain temperature, and pygmy pines won't grow above 10 feet tall. These adaptations are a direct result of the regularity of fires in the pinelands.
ABSECON - A house was gutted early Wednesday morning by a fire that officials and neighbors say spread quickly. The blaze started while a 6-month-old baby and four adults were sleeping at a home in the 800 block of Marlborough Avenue, police said.
HAMMONTON - The team fighting the six-day-old fire in Wharton State Forest has thinned to what one warden called "pretty much a skeleton crew," but it probably will be needed beyond Halloween.
Firefighters had hoped for more than the half-inch of rain that fell Saturday, said Bert Plante, division fire warden for the state Forest Fire Service.
Still, the precipitation chased away plenty of smoke, and the fire is considered 90 percent "contained," which characterizes the likelihood it won't spread to new ground.
Crews will inspect the ground for days after the next storm to see whether they can close the book on the 1,950-acre blaze.
"Extinguishing is going to have to come from Mother Nature," Plante said.
Hammonton isn't expected to see rain again until scattered showers move in Saturday and Sunday, according to a Weather Channel forecast Sunday afternoon. The National Interagency Fire Center projects that this region's forest "fuel" will have dried by Tuesday.
The fire began Tuesday afternoon near Waterford Township, Camden County. It has forced roads and schools to close, but it is not believed to have injured anyone or damaged private property. On Sunday, about 10 firefighters monitored the scene, down from more than 200 in the blaze's critical early hours, Plante said.
E-mail Eric Scott Campbell: ECampbell@pressofac.com
HAMMONTON - Friday morning began with an unusual blackout for Jim Austin and many other Hamm-onton residents.
Austin, owner of the Blueberry Factory on Bellevue Avenue, said when he woke at 7 a.m., the smoke from the smoldering, four-day-old fire in Wharton State Forest was drifting over the township. The clouds were so thick he couldn't see the house across the street, and he could smell the burning scent inside the house and garage.
EGG HARBOR CITY - A downtown fire early Thursday morning left several apartment residents homeless, the shell-shocked and uninsured owner of a destroyed clothing shop out at least $60,000 and a 24-year-old man in jail, charged with intentionally setting the blaze.
Donald J. Lentz, of Buena Vista Township, is being held at the Atlantic County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail. He faces charges of aggravated arson and terroristic threats.
