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A Mahwah police officer got everyone out before the 2 a.m. three-alarm fire consumered the Victoria Lane house in the Fardale section of town, Police Chief James Batelli said this afternoon.
Officer Travis Canning, responding to a noise complaint, found several vehicles in the driveway and loud music coming from inside.
Spotting smoke, he opened a sliding door on the rear deck and “was hit with a burst of heat and clouds of smoke,” Batelli said.
Canning alerted firefighters, began searching the house and found two men “throwing cups of water on a small fire in a room on the first floor where the washer and dryer were kept,” the chief said.
One of them had also doused his sweater and threw it at the flames.
The officer followed the music, found the partiers and got them out, Batelli said.
“As the smoke and flames continued to increase he gathered the group outside where they conducted a head count, accounted for everyone and determined that all had exited the house safely,” the chief said.
The owners were overseas and their son has been living there, Batellli said.
Nearly a half-dozen fire companies responded to the blaze.
Heavy fire on three sides quickly pushed them into an exterior approach and they knocked it down within two hours.
In addition to Mahwah, firefighters from Franklin Lakes, Midland Park, Ramsey and Wyckoff responded to the scene, while those from Ho-Ho-Kus, Oakland and Upper Saddle River filled in at township firehouses.
PHOTOS: Courtesy MAHWAH FD
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