A three-alarm fire - the city’s second in about five hours - ripped through four connected homes in Trenton’s West Ward Tuesday evening.
The fire, reported at about 5:40 p.m. on Colonial Avenue, displaced 17 people, but none were injured, Fire Director Derrick Sawyer said. No firefighters were injured either, he said.
City firefighters remained at the scene at 9 p.m., extinguishing hotspots, and would likely be there through the night until an investigation can start at daybreak, Sawyer said. Sawyer said the fire originated in a vacant home, in the middle of a row of homes. Engine Co. 8 was first on scene and found flames on the first floor, then the second.
Firefighters found the flames had gone into the roof and then spread rapidly into common, connected roof areas of the homes, known as a cockloft. From then on, due to the fire conditions, and some collapsing of floors, firefighters left the buildings and only battled the blaze from the exterior, Sawyer said.