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It took about 22 hours to put the stubborn fire out, they said.
On Wednesday, May 17, at 3:45 p.m., South Brunswick police received a call reporting a fire in a commercial building at 2 Progress Road.
Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith and several police units arrived on scene at the single-story building within minutes and reported a significant amount of black smoke and flames coming from the roof of the warehouse, South Brunswick police said.
Fifteen employees were in the building when the blaze was first reported, and all made it out of the building to safety unharmed, police said.
Firefighters battled the blaze, while local EMS units responded to support the operation.
Firefighters initiated an interior attack on the fire, but were forced to evacuate the building due to heavy fire conditions found in several sections of the building, police said.
Once the majority of the fire was knocked down, firefighters re-entered the building and used multiple hose lines to attack the fires burning inside the warehouse, they said.
Materials stored inside the warehouse collapsed due to the fire and the use of water from hose lines and the building sprinkler system, "resulting in a deep-seated fire that was difficult to extinguish," police said.
Firefighters began working in rotation to dig through the materials by hand and with the use of fork-lifts and skid-steer machinery to ultimately extinguish the fire, police said.
As the scope of the operation grew, help was requested from many other agencies throughout the state. County and State agencies responded to the scene to provide additional assistance, as did fire and EMS personnel from as far as 70 miles away, police said.
By 2 p.m. Thursday, May 18, fire officials were confident that the fire had been fully extinguished.
At this time, the cause of the fire is undetermined, but not believed to be suspicious in nature, police said.
Police were on scene to assist with traffic, and Office of Emergency Management personnel responded to provide additional resources and assistance.
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