Community Requested To Help Victims Of South Brunswick Fire

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — The Township and school district's Community Resource Team are requesting community members to help the victims of the South Brunswick fire.

The Monday morning fire at South Ridge Woods apartment complex witnessed dramatic scenes of a father and child dropping from a second-floor window, to escape. Six of the 24 homes were damaged by the fire and the building has been deemed uninhabitable. In total, 20 people including 9 children lost their homes.

South Brunswick Mayor Charlie Carley directed a coordinated relief effort in conjunction with the South Brunswick School District to help the families impacted by the fire.

“I am so thankful everyone made it out of the apartment building, but many lost everything. I have directed our Social Service Department to take the lead in our relief efforts. They will be providing immediate financial assistance, gift cards, and food,” Carley said. “Our community consistently rallies to help those in need, and we will do it again with our fire victims.”

Families who were impacted have children studying at Brooks Crossing, Crossroads North, and South Brunswick High School, the South Brunswick Community Resource Team said.

Jeanne Wert, the Director of Social Services said the families mostly need gift cards - from Walmart, Target, Amazon, Shop & Stop, ShopRite, drug stores, etc.

"They lost everything. Some of the school-aged children went to class and returned to nothing,” Wert said.

Social Services has set up two locations for gift cards to be dropped off at – South Brunswick Municipal Building (Social Services office) 540 Ridge Road, Monmouth Junction or South Brunswick Community Center 124 New Road, Monmouth Junction.

The South Brunswick School District is accepting donations at all schools. The collections should be dropped off at the front desk at any of our schools or inter-office to Amy Finkelstein at the high school.

Donations will be collected through March 18. Questions can be directed to Jeanne Wert at SB Social Services, jwert@sbtnj.net or Amy Finkelstein at Amy.Finkelstein@sbschools.org.

The South Brunswick Fire Chief released additional details on the Monday blaze and said the outcome could have "easily been tragic" if the fire was earlier in the morning. Read More: Officials Release Additional Details On South Brunswick Fire

"We were faced with extremely heavy fire conditions immediately on arrival, along with reports of people still inside," Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith said. "Fortunately, all of the occupants were able to escape the fire. If this fire was earlier in the morning when people may have still been asleep, the outcome could have easily been tragic."

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