A fire in a Brick Township home late Friday night began near the home’s fireplace, officials said.
Firefighters were called to the residence, at 131 Fisher Avenue, off Chambers Bridge Road, at 11:30 p.m., said Kevin Batzel, director of the Brick Township Bureau of Fire Prevention.
The residents of the home, Batzel said, noticed smoke emanating from areas around a fireplace where smoke is not supposed to come from. The residents tried putting out the underlying fire by themselves, but were not able to and called a neighbor, who then called the fire department.
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“The fire was placed under control very quickly,” Batzel said, though it had spread to the interior of the walls and floor before firefighters arrived. The home did not have any working smoke detectors, Batzel said.
The home was marked as uninhabitable due to smoke damage, said Batzel, and the township’s building department is investigating whether the home’s basement was being used illegally as an apartment.
Fire District 1, as well as the Herbertsville and Laurelton fire companies responded to the fire, Batzel said.