Man Breaks Down Door, Rescues Dog From Brick Fire

Debbie Barone was at work, printing out the signed contract from the couple who had just committed to buy her Brick Township home, when she got the call to get home ... quickly.

Her Lexington Drive home, which she had just put up for sale a day before, was on fire.

“The house had just been completely redone, and the house was sold,” she said Saturday evening by telephone as she reflected on what happened. “The couple who were buying it were excited, they found exactly what they wanted.”

In less than an hour, Barone and her three children -- 21-year-old twins Gina and Joseph and 18-year-old Michael -- were left with the clothing on their backs and the kids’ baby pictures, and Debbie’s Yorkie-poo, Daisy, who was rescued from the home by a neighbor.

“I just don’t think it’s hit me yet,” Barone said. “I just know my kids are safe and my dog got out.

“Everything else can be replaced,” she said.

Barone and her boyfriend, Bob Picone, said the cause of Wednesday’s fire, which started sometime after 3 p.m., is undetermined, from what they’ve been told. She got the call from her neighbor, Wendy Vacante, about 4 p.m. telling her the back of the house was on fire, and as she rushed home from her job as a pharmacist at Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood (formerly known as Kimball Medical Center), she called Dina, who was picking up Joseph from work, to warn her. Then she called Michael at his Surf Taco job to tell him.

Meanwhile, Barone said, her neighbor, Todd Biebel, knew Daisy was in the house and went in to rescue her.

“He’s a retired State Trooper,” Barone said. “He jumped the fence and tried to kick in the back door, and when he couldn’t, he went around to the front of the house.”

There, Barone said, Biebel found the garage door was unlocked, so he went in and then kicked in the door from the garage into the house. Immediately, however, the heat and smoke pushed him back, she said. But Biebel got on his hands and knees and crawled around trying to find Daisy.

At first he couldn’t, and the intensity of the fire forced him to retreat, Barone said.

“Then he realized he’d dropped his phone,” she said. “When he went back in to get it, Daisy was there and he grabbed her.” Both Biebel nand Daisy were OK, she said.

“After that it just went up,” she said.

When she and her kids arrived on the scene, she said, “It was just surreal,” with lots of fire trucks and emergency personnel.

It was even more surreal the next day, she said, when the mail arrived.

“We got one of those flyers they send out when a house goes on the market,” she said, “and it was my house.” The mail carrier was hesitant to give it to her, she said. “He felt bad.”

“It’s your whole life, all your memories,” said Barone, who had moved into the home 19 years ago from Howell, and had raised all three children there.

Barone and her kids have been staying with Picone since the fire, she said.

“He’s done everything for me,” she said, “talking to the insurance company, the fire investigators, everyone.”

“I don’t know where I would be without him,” she said.

He found the baby pictures in the dining room, at the far end of the house from where the fire was, he said. Barone said a few other pictures that had been hanging on the dining room wall were taken by the salvage company with the hope of cleaning them up.

Picone, however, said there are many people who should be praised, from the firefighters and police who have continued to help well past the initial stages of putting out the fire and investigating it.

“They have continued to offer support,” he said.

He praised Vacante, who called 911 and tried to fight the fire with a garden hose until firefighters arrived, then provided clothing and drinks to the family.

“And Todd risked his life to save the dog,” he said.

“Everyone needs to know the courage of so many people,” he said.

Plus there were those who showed up with food and equipment and simply support.

“Jeff Bevaqua from Joe’s Service Center showed up with food and a pickup truck at 11 p,m, to help any way he could,” Picone said. He said the Elwell family donated their pickup truck and offered refreshments at midnight that night, while investigators sifted through the rubble. The Gerb family brought gift cards, he said, and the Czujko family drove down from Sea Bright with clothing and donations, he said.

Picone also has set up a GoFundMe account for donations to help Barone and her children replace clothing and furnishings lost in the fire.

Most of all, he praised the efforts of Brick Township’s police firefighters and fire investigators, who have worked tirelessly to try to find the cause and comfort and support the family.

“It’s time like this that pulls everyone together and helps,” Picone said.

To donate to the Barones’ GoFundMe campaign, click here.

(Smoke billows from the back of a Lexington Drive home that caught fire Wednesday afternoon. The fire consumed most of the interior of the home -- including the Barone family’s belongings. Photos courtesy of Bob Picone)