At just past 10:40 am on Wednesday morning, April 12th, 2007, Cherry Hill Firefighters responded to a reported house fire on Candlewyck Way in the Old Orchard neighborhood. The fire was called in by two neighbors reporting a severe smoke condition from the dwelling on fire.Cherry Hill Firefighters, who had just taken up from another emergency call in the area arrived within two minutes from dispatch and reported a heavy smoke condition in the front of the house. After investigating all sides of the dwelling they also reported that a large volume of fire was discovered in the rear of the dwelling.
The fire, which originated in the front living room on the first floor of this two story home, was quickly spreading throughout the rest of the first floor and to the upper floor as firefighters initiated their attack. Firefighters simultaneously deployed multiple hose lines to attack the fast moving fire while another crew initiated a search and rescue operation for occupants who may have been in the house. A complete search of the dwelling, including the use of infrared cameras, revealed that there were no occupants in the dwelling.
The intense heat condition and accompanying black smoke, which was throughout the entire house, completely obscured their vision. Next arriving fire units opened up windows and doors to ventilate the extremely harsh smoke condition giving interior firefighters better visibility and a more tenable environment to work in.
Twenty five (25) Cherry Hill Firefighters quickly brought this fire under control within twenty minutes. Because of the heavy amount of original fire, firefighters also opened up all the walls and ceilings in each of the rooms suffering fire damage to check for extension. Heavy smoke and heat damage was encountered throughout the entire dwelling.
Chief Giorgio remarked, “A quick response and exceptional teamwork by the first arriving crews resulted in this fire being placed under control in about 20 minutes. As it turned out, the fire had a long time to grow unnoticed and damaged most of the rooms, affecting this family’s entire home”. As it is, this family of four is displaced from their home, and is making arrangements to stay with nearby family.
There were no reported injuries to civilians or emergency workers at this incident, although the family’s pet dog was lost due to the heavy smoke and heat. This fire is under investigation by the Cherry Hill Fire Marshal’s Office. It was noted that there was evidence the fire may have had almost an hour and half to grow undetected while no one was at home. Subsequently, the room of origin suffered extensive fire damage.
