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Police & Fire
Man Set Off Molotov Cocktails 3 Times In Jersey Shore Costco, Theater Parking Lot: Prosecutor Man Set Off Molotov Cocktails 3 Times In Jersey Shore Costco, Theater Parking Lot: Prosecutor
Man Set Off Molotov Cocktails 3 Times In Jersey Shore Costco, Theater Parking Lot: Prosecutor A Jersey Shore man was arrested for setting off molotov cocktails in a local Route 35 parking lot three nights last week, authorities said. Brendan J. Dunne, 24, of Holmdel, set off a series of fires believe to have started in a glass bottle containing charred pieces of cardboard in the Route 45 Costco and Cinemark parking lot July 19, 21 and 22, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office said. Hazlet police responded to the scene around 10:10 p.m. July 19, where an officer extinguished the fire and determined the source to be a homemade Molotov cocktail, Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor…

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by Cecilia Levine
News
Father Arrested In NJ Arson Fire That Killed Baby Daughter, Grandparents, Prosecutor Says Father Arrested In NJ Arson Fire That Killed Baby Daughter, Grandparents, Prosecutor Says
Father Arrested In NJ Arson Fire That Killed Baby Daughter, Grandparents, Prosecutor Says A 23-year-old Trenton man has been arrested in connection with a fatal fire that killed has baby daughter and her grandparents, authorities said. Michael Sanders, 23, of Trenton, was charged on Monday with three counts of first-degree felony murder, arson and assault in the early Friday fire that killed three relatives, the Mercer County prosecutor said.  Sanders was arrested on Monday morning at a hotel in Plainsboro, Middlesex County, according to Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri. Multiple surveillance cameras  placed Sanders at or near the scene of the fatal fire shortly…

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by Jon Craig
News
South Jersey Woman, 3 Men Arrested In Torching Of Historic Mansion, Iron Foundry, Police Say South Jersey Woman, 3 Men Arrested In Torching Of Historic Mansion, Iron Foundry, Police Say
South Jersey Woman, 3 Men Arrested In Torching Of Historic Mansion, Iron Foundry, Police Say A woman and three men from Camden County have been arrested in connection with multiple fires as an abandoned iron foundry, authorities said. The fires were intentionally set using flammables in April and June, destroying two buildings while damaging two others, according to Burlington City police.  The arson fires occurred at the city's defunct U.S. Pipe and Foundry and historic McNeal Mansion once used as the iron foundry's headquarters.The foundry complex is abandoned and police allege the suspects climbed under fencing. Police released a surveillance camera that allegedly caught image…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Atlantic County Man Indicted For Torching Lakewood House With 3 Inside, Ocean Prosecutor Says Atlantic County Man Indicted For Torching Lakewood House With 3 Inside, Ocean Prosecutor Says
Atlantic County Man Indicted For Torching Lakewood House With 3 Inside, Ocean Prosecutor Says A 26-year-old man from South Jersey has been indicted on attempted murder and arson charges, authorities said.  Jamal Preston of Egg Harbor Township, was indicted by a grand jury on Thursday, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. Preston was arrested by U.S. Marshals at a motel in Absecon in connection with a fire he allegedly set to a home in Lakewood, Billhimer said. On Aug. 22, 2020, the Lakewood police were called to the house fire. A multi-agency investigation found that the fire had been intentionally set using a flammable liquid, the prosecu…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
Jersey Shore Wildland Arson Investigation 'At An Impasse,' Prosecutor Says Jersey Shore Wildland Arson Investigation 'At An Impasse,' Prosecutor Says
Jersey Shore Wildland Arson Investigation 'At An Impasse,' Prosecutor Says Authorities from the Jersey Shore say they have been unable to identify those responsible for setting a suspicious wildfire last month. The fire consumed 167 acres of land in Brick and Lakewood in March, according to Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer. A business was destroyed and hundreds of area residents had to be evacuated, Billhimer said.  A firefighter suffered a heart attack while battling the blaze, which jumped over the Garden State Parkway, he said.  Fire officials identified the fire’s origin "along with our conclusion that the fire was intentiona…

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by Jon Craig
News
Ex-Con Sent To Prison For Setting Fire To Paterson Home Ex-Con Sent To Prison For Setting Fire To Paterson Home
Ex-Con Sent To Prison For Setting Fire To Paterson Home UPDATE: An ex-con with a lengthy criminal record must spend at least 2½ years in prison before she’ll be eligible for parole after deliberately setting fire to a Paterson home occupied by squatters. Erin Micco, a Florida native who recently lived in Rutherford, was arrested soon after the two-alarm blaze destroyed the 2½-story Pearl Street home and damaged a neighboring residence last Nov. 17. None of the squatters were injured in the fire, which took nearly six hours to douse. Micco already had a criminal history that dates back to 2012. She served time for grand theft and trafficking in…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Paterson Squatter Admits Torching Multi-Family Home In Purported Suicide Try Paterson Squatter Admits Torching Multi-Family Home In Purported Suicide Try
Paterson Squatter Admits Torching Multi-Family Home In Purported Suicide Try A Paterson squatter who set fire to a multi-family home after authorities said he deliberately stabbed himself has pleaded guilty to aggravated arson. Ertugrul Abaci, 58, bled heavily as he staggered across Sussex Street on June 9, 2019, authorities said at the time. He’d just ignited a fire in and outside the attic apartment where he’d lived nearly 23 years – and hadn’t paid rent on for the past five, they said. The German-born Abaci, who became a U.S. citizen after emigrating in the early 1990s, used a bottle of vodka as an accelerant after taking a few swigs from it, investigators said.…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Angry Woman Set Huge Paterson Fire That Displaced 60 By Lighting Paper Towels, Indictment Says Angry Woman Set Huge Paterson Fire That Displaced 60 By Lighting Paper Towels, Indictment Says
Angry Woman Set Huge Paterson Fire That Displaced 60 By Lighting Paper Towels, Indictment Says UPDATE: A woman deliberately set a fire last summer that roared through a string of attached mixed-use buildings in Paterson -- displacing 60 residents and injuring four firefighters – during an argument with a tenant, authorities charged. Authorities didn’t suggest a possible motive when they announced that detectives had arrested Yanit Valdez, 38, of Manhattan 10 days after the massive Aug. 3 fire on Cianci Street. However, an indictment returned by a grand jury in Paterson this week accuses Valdez of lighting paper towels on a couch to settle an argument in an upper-floor apartment. Fla…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Prosecutor: Garden State Parkway Wildfire 'Intentionally Set' Prosecutor: Garden State Parkway Wildfire 'Intentionally Set'
Prosecutor: Garden State Parkway Wildfire 'Intentionally Set' Authorities say that Sunday's wildland fire, which jumped over the Garden State Parkway in Lakewood, was intentionally set. “We have located the origin of the fire and have concluded that the fire was intentionally set,” Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said on Friday. No other new details were released by the prosecutor. Earlier news coverage and video of the fire by Daily Voice can be found by clicking here.  About 1:15 p.m. on Sunday, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service Observation Tower in Lakewood reported a wildland fire in the area of Cedarbridge Aven…

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by Jon Craig
Police & Fire
West Philadelphia Lowe's Arsonist Indicted For Blaze Set During BLM Protests West Philadelphia Lowe's Arsonist Indicted For Blaze Set During BLM Protests
West Philadelphia Lowe's Arsonist Indicted For Blaze Set During BLM Protests A man accused of torching West Philadelphia Lowe's during last May's widespread Black Lives Matter protests has been indicted on federal arson charges, authorities announced. The indictment alleges that Derrick Weatherbe, 29, of Philadelphia, damaged and destroyed the Lowe’s Home Improvement store on North 50th Street on May 31, 2020, according to Acting United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams. The incident occurred following a series of nationwide protests in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Surveillance tapes showed a man with distin…

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by Nicole Acosta
Police & Fire
‘Going To Be Fighting This Fire Next Few Days,’ Passaic Mayor Says Of Massive Blaze ‘Going To Be Fighting This Fire Next Few Days,’ Passaic Mayor Says Of Massive Blaze
‘Going To Be Fighting This Fire Next Few Days,’ Passaic Mayor Says Of Massive Blaze UPDATE: A massive, multi-alarm blaze that consumed a Passaic recycling company continued burning into late morning Saturday as firefighters fought raging flames along with bitter cold. All of the workers at Atlantic Coast Fibers plant on 7th Street got out OK and no serious injuries were reported in the inferno, which began shortly after 11 p.m. Friday. A firefighter was hospitalized with an undisclosed injury, and the Passaic County prosecutor’s arson unit responded because of the size and amount of damage caused by the blaze, authorities said. In an eerie coincidence, the fire broke out…

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by Jerry DeMarco
News
Rioter Cops To Torching Trenton Police Cruiser After George Floyd Protest Rioter Cops To Torching Trenton Police Cruiser After George Floyd Protest
Rioter Cops To Torching Trenton Police Cruiser After George Floyd Protest A South Jersey man admitted in federal court Tuesday that he tried to set fire to a police cruiser during a video-recorded riot that broke out following a peaceful protest last spring in Trenton. Killian F. Melecio, 20, of Columbus told a U.S. District Court Judge in Trenton via videoconference that he stuffed a shirt he’d gotten from another man into the gas tank of the vehicle and tried to ignite it last May 31. The protest earlier that day in response to the death of George Floyd had been peaceful, authorities said. Violence later erupted as a mob spread down East State Street, smashing …

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by Jerry DeMarco