Police are investigating after three suspicious fires broke out in Linden late Thursday, followed by another fire in neighboring Roselle early Friday in a three-hour span.
No injuries were reported in the series of blazes that started at 10 p.m. with a house fire on the 800 block of North Wood Avenue that quickly escalated to two alarms, Linden police said Friday morning. The fire forced the evacuation of a neighboring building. Another two-alarm blaze broke out 30 minutes later in an empty home on the 900 block of Seymour Avenue, police said. The fire caused extensive damage to the home and residents of a neighboring home were displaced as firefighters battled the blaze. The American Red Cross provided relocation assistance for both fires, police said.
As both scenes were still active, firefighters were called to a series of brush fires and a dumpster fire at nearby Soehl MIddle School on the 300 block of East Henry Street, police said.