A woman has died after an early morning fire swept through a multifamily home on Delavan Street in New Brunswick. The blaze broke out at a house where she lived on the second floor, and according to neighbors who shared video of the scene, the fire appeared to start in the attic, directly above the unit of the woman who owned the home.
Neighbors said firefighters were on the street within minutes of the fire breaking out. They watched as crews worked at the home and then carried the victim out, describing how she was wrapped in a blanket and placed on a stretcher before being loaded into a waiting ambulance, a scene that unfolded in front of the people who live on the block.
The woman was rushed from the scene to nearby Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Center. Despite the quick response and the effort to get her to the hospital, fire officials say she did not survive, turning what neighbors described as a frightening early morning emergency into a tragedy for the small community on the street.
Those who lived around her painted a picture of a vulnerable older resident. Neighbors said the woman, whom they referred to only by her first name, Claire, was basically confined to the home because her health was not good. She lived there largely on her own, which is part of why the loss hit her neighbors so hard.
Among those mourning was Janie Fuller, who said she had lived next door to the victim since 1978, a span of nearly five decades as neighbors. Others on the block echoed her sadness, with one resident saying it felt especially painful that the woman had been alone in the home when the fire took hold.
The home was a multifamily residence, and at least one other resident, a tenant who rents a lower portion of the house, was able to get out of the building. Neighbors said the fire alarms and the speed of the response helped others escape, even as the woman on the second floor could not be saved from the flames that spread from above.
For now, the exact cause of the fire remains under investigation. Neighbors pointed to the attic as the apparent starting point, but officials had not confirmed what sparked the blaze, leaving the people on Delavan Street to grieve a longtime resident while waiting for answers about how the fire began.