Hurricane Sandy

Cranford Firefighters Battle High Winds To Extinguish Blaze

Emergency crews are responding to the scene of a fire in an industrial area.

Fighting against Hurrican Sandy's high winds, Cranford firefighters responded to a blaze in an industrial section of town that residents say has been lighting up the sky for nearly an hour. Fire Chief Leonard Dolan said the blaze is contained to primary power lines on Jackson Drive near Commerce Drive. "Primary electric lines burning," Dolan said, explaining that this is a commercial area, and the power lines have not resulted in outages for any residents nearby. The powerful winds that have accompanied Sandy have resulted in downed trees and power lines throughout the municipality, according to the fire chief. "In the last hour, the wind has really kicked up and we have multiple trees down around town, multiple wires down. We have all of …

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Fire Inside PSE&G Power Station Shuts Down Traffic On South Avenue

Equipment inside a power station caught fire Friday afternoon.

Cranford firefighters and mutual aid crews responded to a small fire inside a PSE&G power station at 225 South Ave. East. According to Fire Chief Leonard Dolan, a piece of switching equipment caught fire inside the building just after 3 p.m. on July 13. Dolan said that during Hurricane Irene, the building flooded. As a result, the utility company was in the process of taking electrical circuits that were inside the building and relocating them outside, to the rear of the facility. It is believed that one of the circuits - which feeds downtown Cranford and the northeast section of town - caught fire during the switching process. "We initially thought it was a bigger piece of equipment," Dolan said. Dolan said no power outages were reported …

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Cause Of Four-Alarm House Fire On North Avenue Still Unclear

Cranford fire officials are unable to enter the home and investigate the cause of the June 24 blaze due to the instability of the chimney.

Fire officials have not yet determined the cause of the four-alarm fire that caused heavy damage to a home at 217 North Ave. West on June 24. According to Cranford Fire Chief Leonard Dolan, the home was "heavily damaged" when flames tore through the top two floors of the dwelling. "We're unable to go in an investigate because the chimney is not stable," Dolan said. Officials are waiting for the homeowner's insurance company to take action so that the chimney can be stablized, allowing investigators to go inside the house and determine the origin of the fire. Dolan said that the cause of the blaze does not appear to be suspicious. The fire was reported just after 5:30 p.m. on Sunday. The fire quickly spread throughout the upper part of the …

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VIDEO: Crews Work To Extinguish North Avenue House Fire

Firefighters from Cranford and several nearby towns battled a four-alarm blaze Sunday.

Smoke billowed from the windows and flames shot from a gaping hole in the roof of a home at 217 North Ave. West on June 24. Fire companies from all over Union County responded to the township to provide mutual aid to the Cranford Fire Department as they worked to bring the late afternoon blaze under control. For more news and updates about Cranford, "like" us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CranfordPatch or follow @CranfordPatch on Twitter.

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Home Improvement Work Leads To Minor House Fire

Firefighters were able to bring a residential fire under control in minutes.

A homeowner's attempt to remove paint from the outside of his home with a heat gun resulted in a house fire Saturday at about 4:50 p.m. The Cranford Fire Department was called to 6 Lasalle Ave. at approximately 4:53 p.m. on April 7 for reports of a residential fire at a home located just a few blocks away from Orange Avenue. According to fire officials, a resident of the two-story, white home on the small residential street was attempting to remove paint with a heat gun, when he accidentally set the wooden frame of the house on fire. There was nobody in the house when the fire broke out. Upon arrival, Cranford firefighters requested mutual aid backup from the Westfield Fire Department. The blaze was brought under control within minutes, …

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