Prosecutor's Office: NJ Firefighter Killed In Blaze
UNION BEACH, N.J. (AP) — A Monmouth County firefighter died Sunday night while fighting a four-alarm fire at a commercial building in Union Beach, officials said.
The 54-year-old volunteer firefighter collapsed outside of the building Sunday evening, officials said. The firefighter's name wasn't being released, pending an autopsy and the notification of his family, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office spokesman Charles Webster.
Michael Pasterchick, the prosecutor's office's chief of detectives, told the Newark Star-Ledger that the Union Hose Fire Co. firefighter was outside of the building when he died.
There were no immediate reports of other injuries.
Webster said firefighters were still battling hotspots and no cause or origin of the fire was immediately available.
Union Beach Police Capt. Chuck Ervin told the Asbury Park Press that the building on Union Avenue houses a company that manufactures hydraulics.
"I saw lots of flames, and thick black smoke," Donna Covert, who lives several doors down from the site of the fire, told the Asbury Park Press. She said the building contained "chemicals, oil and other stuff."
The building is a few block from the Raritan Bay. The town was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy.
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