6-Alarm Fire Ravages At Least 9 Homes In Trenton
TRENTON, N.J. (CBS) -- Several residents were forced to evacuate after a six-alarm fire ripped through nine homes in Trenton on Monday morning.
It happened around 3:00 a.m. in the unit block of Weinberg Place.
For more than five hours, firefighters fought the wind-fuel fire as the flames ravaged nine homes along the unit block of Weinberg Place.
Five of the homes fully collapsed, and the other four are so damaged, they will have to be torn down.
Three cars were also torched in the fire.
"I lost everything," one resident told CBS 3's Anita Oh.
"The fire spread to nine houses, we have three houses on the end that are collapsed, the other six houses are in the state of collapse, said Deputy Chief Leonard Carmichael Jr., with the Trenton Fire Department. "We have three cars at the end of the block that were totally destroyed. There were no injuries to firefighters."
The frigid temperatures and whipping winds made battling the blaze a four-hour task, but the bigger challenged was navigating live downed wires.
"They had to stop firefighting," Carmichael said. "It was compromising firefighter safety."
The Red Cross told CBS 3 that they have helped 29 people who have been displaced.
"This is something that you don't think is going to touch you and then you see something like that outside of your house and you go into a panic mode, you don't even know what to do," said resident Angelika Mostowska.
Neighbors said there have been multiple squatters at the end of the block who smoke cigarettes, but fire officials are still investigating the cause of the blaze.
The fire was placed under control around 7:00 a.m.
Fire crews are working to dismantle the gas lines from the burned homes so they can turn the power back on for neighbors and businesses.