Mansfield Township fire destroy home, leaves resident "lucky to be alive"
MANSFIELD, N.J. (CBS) -- A fire in Burlington County destroyed a home Sunday night. Residents returned Monday to pick up the pieces as investigators search for the cause of the fire. It happened on Sheffield Drive in Mansfield Township.
No one was hurt in the fire, but the owner lost his pets.
While the walls are still standing, the home is gutted.
The residents now have to find somewhere else to live.
A dramatic cellphone video showed flames raging out of control at a house on Sheffield Drive in Mansfield Township.
DroneWatch 3 shows the back of the house sustained the worst of the damage.
"It was all crazy," neighbor Udai Kashyap said. "The flames were going up and up."
The fire began around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Sunday as a resident inside was sleeping.
A neighbor banged on the door to wake him up.
After the resident escaped, off-duty firefighter Henry Roldan Jr. made sure no one else was inside.
"He's lucky to be alive, thank God, but he got himself out of the house," Roldan Jr. said. "I did kick the front door in, just to get a quick glance and check for other occupants."
It took 75 firefighters about 45 minutes to get the fire under control.
It's unknown whether there were any smoke detectors in the home.
Neighbors feared the fire would spread to their homes.
"I was so much scared," Kashyap said, "and everybody was scared because the grass is so dry."
The fire marshal estimates the fire had been burning 15 or 20 minutes before anyone noticed, resulting in a delayed response.
Another challenge, there are no fire hydrants in the neighborhood, so firefighters had to bring their own water with tanks and use portable ponds.
Eyewitness News spoke to the residents on Monday, but they were too distraught to talk.
"We are going to make some changes in our own houses, like buy a fireproof safe," Kashyap said. "I haven't upgraded my fire extinguisher for so long. I'm going to do that. Yeah, this is a wake-up call, I think, for all of us."
The fire marshal says the fire likely started outside the home and spread inside.
Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire.
