Newark House Fire: 6 Killed In Single-Family Home After ‘Fast-Moving Fire Ripped’ Through It

A Newark house fire killed six people in a single-home structure after being engulfed in flames. In a report by ABC News, the “fast-moving fire ripped through” the home early Sunday morning.

The Essex County Prosecutor’s office says the three-story house fire began around 4 am in Newark. The blaze moved swiftly, burning the next house. Residents in the second home escaped unharmed.

Chief assistant prosecutor Thomas Fennelly says no suspicion is tied behind the Newark house fire, but its cause is being investigated. The exact location of where the fire broke out is on the corner of Madison Avenue and South 15th Street.

All that’s left of the charred home is the scorched frame, mangled furniture, and possessions falling out of glassless window sills. The property’s white fence is still intact, according to the report. ABC News notes that a small storefront church called Tree of Life Ministries near the burned home was spared any damage from the house fire.

CBS Local New York reports Newark Deputy Fire Chief Richard Gail as saying:

“We don’t know exactly where it started at this point. There was a lot of fire, so that’s going to take a little bit of working out to find the actual point of origin.”

One neighbor recalls how fast the Newark house fire spread:

“It’s crazy. They had fire just coming from the front of the house. The house blew up. The flames was uncontrollable.”

James Johnson is the family’s pastor and shares:

“They’re very good people. They’re from Saint Vincent… from the islands, but they’ve been here for many years. And they’re a part of my ministry. So I’m very shaken at this moment. And I’m still not clear as to what all has taken place.”

Pastor Johnson shares that the family members he knew there were a husband and wife with grandchildren.

Neighbor Brior Cameron tells 1010 WINS:

“They was real sweet. The old lady, she had a nice heart. She was a calm person. If anything ever went wrong, and you needed her help, she was there.”

Other house fires have taken the lives of entire families living in one residence. The Inquisitr has reported on a few of these, including one in Oklahoma in which a mother and her children perished in 2012. A feel-good article reported on a 5-year-old boy saving his family from a fire destroying their home in Connecticut the morning of Thanksgiving 2012.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]