Crime & Safety

Debris Likely Caused Hillside Chimney Fire

No one was injured in the Saturday night fire.

Karen Adamson was cooking dinner at home Saturday night when she noticed that the fire in her fireplace was flickering a little higher than usual. Then she heard a rumbling outside.

At 6:27 p.m. Cranford firefighters responded to a chimney fire at 239 Hillside Ave. No one was injured in the incident and there was no structural damage to the residence.

The Adamsons had the fire going for most of the day. It had died down when Karen and her husband left to visit a friend's house and they stoked it back up when they returned.

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Though the cause has yet to be officially known, Adamson and Captain Helge Nordtveit of the Cranford Fire Department believe the fire was due to some debris in the chimney.

"It has happened before," said Karen. "My husband is cranky because I told him he can't use the chimney anymore."

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"This is not unusual," said Nordtveit. "They do maintain their chimney, so it's probably a piece of debris that caused this. Maybe a birds nest."

The fire was extinguished shortly before 7 p.m. William Merwede served as incident commander.


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