STRUCTURE FIRE

Date & Time: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 – 9:53 p.m.

Location: Mercer Wrecking, 1519 Calhoun Street, Ewing Township, N.J.

Details: Members of Prospect Heights Fire Co. (Station 31) were initially dispatched at 9:51 p.m. to the Mercer Wrecking yard for a reported trash fire. Prospect Heights Chief Jeff Lenarski and the first-due engine arrived to find heavy smoke and fire coming from a massive pile of trash (which measured at least 50 feet high and three times as wide) inside a warehouse on the site. A full-first alarm was immediately sounded at 9:53 p.m., resulting in crews from the Pennington Road (Station 32), West Trenton (Station 33), and Lawrence Road (Station 22) being dispatched. An extra engine from Slackwood Fire Co. (Station 21) was special-called one minute later. Multiple hoselines were put to work by firefighters, as Mercer Wrecking personnel used their machines to break apart the pile of trash. The blaze was under control by 10:21 p.m. but firefighters remained on scene for another hour overhauling and hitting hot spots. Rescue 22’s crew stood by as the rapid intervention team during the incident. Apparatus that operated on the scene were: Squirt 31, Engine 31-1, Engine 31, Telesquirt 32, Engine 32, Rescue 32, Light Plant 32, Ladder Tower 33, Engine 33, Rescue 22, Engine 21 and Ambulance 139-1. Rescue 22 was back in quarters by 11:36 p.m.

Responding LRFC Personnel

Rescue 22

Officer: Assistant Chief John Britton	Driver: Ff. Charles Commini Sr.
Crew: Capt. Edward Kitchen	Crew: Ff. Charles Commini Jr.
Crew: Ff. Shaun Dlabik	Crew: Ff. Evan Kutzin
Crew: Ff. Ryan Dlabik

Car 22

Chief Richard Farletta

All photos copyright (c) 2007 by Michael Ratcliffe