Lamp Wire Likely Caused Benjamin Street Blaze

It was a noneventful Saturday afternoon for 18-year-old Ben Whitney at first, watching television downstairs in his home at 80 Benjamin Street. But around 1:12 p.m. when he walked upstairs to go to the bathroom he discovered the second floor immersed in smoke. At that moment, he forgot what program he'd been viewing.

No one was hurt in the two-alarm house fire and firefighters contained the core damage to Whitney's upstairs bedroom, said Capt. Helge Nordveit. Firefighters smashed the glass on Whitney's two bedroom windows, allowing heat and smoke to pour outside instead of gathering on the ceiling. The move prevented the smoke from further damaging the house, said Chief Leonard Dolan.

Firefighters believe the source of the blaze was "possibly electrical in origin," added Nordveit. The cause could be a lamp wire, pinched by the legs of a chair Whitney had been sitting in earlier located in his bedroom – the wire then igniting a basket of laundry on fire.

"(Firefighters) said it was maybe the way the chair was positioned," Whitney said.

Firefighters used two hoses to disperse the blaze. To keep water – now dripping from the ceilings – from damaging the rest of the home, they pulled tarps over the wooden floors and furniture downstairs, Dolan added. Firefighers created a hole in the living room ceiling to allow water to funnel downwards. The move prevented the ceiling from collapsing.

Although the CPD contained the blaze, there was smoke damage throughout the second floor. It scoured the upstairs bathroom, parts of the hallway and another bedroom, covering ceilings, walls and household objects with a blackened layer of soot.

Dolan said he is advising the residents – Ben Whitney, his mother and brother – not to stay in the house until an electrician can fix the wiring, as the damaged electric system could potentially cause another fire.

Along with the Cranford Fire Department, Westfield, Kenilworth, Roselle Park and Roselle fire departments responded to the call.