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The fire broke out in the rear of the two-story Westminster Place home shortly before 6 a.m., apparently from a candle left burning, and quickly went to two alarms.
Four residents and two guests reportedly made it out safely. Two were treated for minor injuries, responders said.
A Wallington firefighter later found the body of 25-year-old Ezequiel Gonzalez, who family friends said lived there with his mother, her fiancé and his daughter.
A resident said she didn’t know why he “didn’t jump out the window” to the roof next door.
Bergen County Prosecutor's Chief of Detectives Robert Anzilotti confirmed the fatality.
Firefighters had the blaze under control within an hour.
The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Arson Investigations Unit was probing the cause, which was believed to be accidental. The Bergen County Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Identification collected evidence.
Mutual aid responders also included firefighters from Hackensack, Garfield and Wood-Ridge.
PHOTO ABOVE: RK FIRE Photography (Rob Knobloch)
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ALSO SEE: As news spread that the worst fears of his loved ones had come true, a 25-year-old tow truck driver killed in a Lodi house fire on Monday was remembered as a good, kind person.
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