FATAL BLAZE
Fire in Trenton home takes the life of 31-year-old man and a dog
TRENTON » Family members were clearing out a brick home that was ravaged by a fire.
One woman with a dust mask wiped tears from her face while another man walked out of the charred home on the 700 block of Beatty Street in Trenton and shouted “This is f**ked up” as he walked on the broken glass that was strewn across the sidewalk from the smashed-out windows.
The raw emotion was definitely understandable, considering the family is dealing with the loss of a relative, who died in the fire the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Firefighters responded to the home at approximately 9:15 p.m. Sunday and the fire was placed under control 50 minutes later, Trenton Fire Director Qareeb Bashir said Monday in a phone interview.
Bashir said the fire originated in the first floor kitchen due to what preliminary reports indicate was unattended cooking.
A search of the entire house found a victim on a mattress on the first floor in the living room and a deceased dog, the fire director said.
Police identified the victim as Edward Smith, 31, of Allentown.
Family members said Smith lived with them in the family rental home.
“He was a hard-working man,” his brother said, noting Smith worked as a landscaper. “He loved his family and kids. He was always smiling and joking around.”
Smith leaves behind three kids.
“He volunteered at the Rescue Mission of Trenton,” his sister in-law said. “He tried to give back as much as he could. He was a good guy.”
Smith was the lone occupant of the home at the time of the fire. No other injuries were reported.
The family believes Smith was sleeping when the fire started.
The fire director said two smoke detectors in the home did not have batteries.
“I always try my best to educate people and convince people that working smoke detectors are very essential,” Bashir said. “Anyone who needs batteries or needs a smoke detector, the fire department will provide them and install them for free and I encourage people to contact us.”
Bashir declined to say if the occupants took the batteries out of the smoke detectors or if the homeowners failed to equip the device with batteries.
The home is registered to Jackson, N.J.-based A & R Development Group. Two owners of the company were standing across the street from the home on Monday morning.
The owners contended that there were working fire detectors in every room before they rented out the place to a family of four people.
The owners also took issue that they were never notified by the city.
“You would think with modern technology that there would be some kind of notification,” one owner vented. “If the tenant and adjustor didn’t call us, we still wouldn’t know.”
The residence was at the end of a group of row homes, leading to a greater potential for disaster.
“All the guys did a tremendous job under a lot of pressure,” Bashir said. “They were able to stop any type of spread of the fire because it was a row home. They were actually able to confine the fire to that one building. And they did a tremendous job under some very strenuous conditions.”
One neighbor said she was not in her home when the fire started.
“If I was here, I would smell it,” the neighbor said. “I would get it right away but I was not here.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
For information on free smoke detectors, batteries and installation, contact the Trenton Fire Department at 609-989-4038.