Guttenberg: Woman, 26, Burned In Fire In Illegal Basement Apt.

GUTTENBERG, NJ — Illegal apartments are a big problem not just in Secaucus, but all of Hudson County — so much so that the town of Secaucus aggressively cracked down on them last year. And in neighboring Guttenberg this week, a husband and wife were arrested and charged with fraud, after their 26-year-old tenant was critically burned in a fire that broke out in an illegal basement apartment prosecutors say she rented from them.

The fire occurred at 6:15 p.m. on May 20 at a three-story residential building at 67 70th Street in Guttenberg.

A female tenant living in the basement unit suffered severe burns, said the Hudson County prosecutor. To this day, more than two months later, she remains in critical but stable condition at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, which is the top hospital in the state for handling burn injuries and smoke inhalation.

An investigation by the Hudson County Regional Arson Task Force has since revealed that the fire started in one of the three illegal apartments located on the ground/basement floor of the building.

On Wednesday of this week, the owners of that property, Jose Puma, 49, and Maria Puma, 50, surrendered to members of the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Public Integrity/Insurance Fraud Unit while accompanied by their attorney.

The Hudson County prosecutor says that the Pumas lied on the insurance policy application for the property. In that application, Jose Puma falsely indicated that only two families were living in the building and that the building was not being used for business purposes.

Also, police say numerous construction and fire codes were knowingly violated, including a lack of smoke detectors in each apartment and inadequate means to escape in an emergency. Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said both of those lapses led to the young woman being severely burned.

Jose was charged with insurance fraud, and his wife was charged with violating the law intended to protect public health and safety. They will appear in court at 1 p.m. on August 5.

What exactly caused the fire remains undetermined.