8 Pets Rescued from Lafayette St. Fire

A Tuesday morning blaze on Lafayette Street at an apartment building has made two residences unliveable, but no injuries were sustained, according to Hackettstown Police Sgt. Darren Tynan. 

The fire in the four-unit building was knocked down at about 10:30 a.m., with firefighters containing it to a single unit. 

Lafayette Street between Franklin and Cook Streets was closed for approximately two hours. 

No one was inside the apartment according to Hackettstown Rescue Squad member Ron Maletti. A dog and four cats were rescued from the apartment, 314 Lafayette Street, and three dogs and one cat were rescued from 312 Lafayette Street, the apartment on the bottom floor, Tynan said.

The upstairs residence where the fire originated, along with the apartment beneath were both deemed uninhibitable, Tynan said.

There is still no reason behind the cause of the fire, and the investigation is ongoing, Tynan said. 

"I didn't smell or feel anything, then the HMUA started banging on the door," said Carl Clemens, a tenant in one of the three apartments the fire did not spread to. "By the time I got out and saw, the flames were rolling."

Clemens said that a family of five lives in the apartment the fire was contained to. 

The fire was called in by a DPW worker driving by the home at 9:57 a.m.

Responding to the fire were the Hackettstown Fire Department, Rescue Squad, Municipal Utilities Authority, Budd Lake Fire Department, Allamuchy Fire Department, Warren County Fire Marshall, and JCP&L.