A mother and her two children were transported to the hospital after a house fire that occurred in their home on Daymond Street in Trenton just before 7 pm on May 2. The Trenton Fire Department arrived on the scene and was able to contain the fire in 10 minutes.
Trenton Fire Chief, Charles Patterson said, “We had a reported fire in the rear of a structure two story ordinary end of the road. There were residents grilling on the back rear porch, and the fire flared up and I believe they threw some water on it, and it flared up even more.”
He continued, “And it went up the back wall and it extended into the kitchen. I believe three residents were injured and had smoke inhalation, and one firefighter went down. His injuries are undetermined.”
According to Chief Patterson, the firefighters had to cut the roof out to make sure that the fire did not extend too far into the house.
Sheena Green, the mother who resides at the house, was visibly crying while getting checked by the first responders. She said, “I grill all the time. I know what I’m doing.”
Danielle Melik, another resident of the house, said she was sleeping at the time of the fire.
She said, “I heard my daughter screaming, saying ‘Call 911 the house is on fire!’ I froze, and I couldn’t move. My neighbor came and helped me out the house. I told him I was not leaving without my cat.”
Melik and her cat were taken out of the house together, and were not affected physically by the fire.
Before the firefighters came, the neighbors were working to assist the family out of the home.
One neighbor, Yatta Ammons, said, “I was in the house and then my son heard her yelling ‘Help me! The kids! The kids! It’s a fire!’ I told my son to go and help them. They grabbed the kids. The only one that was stuck in the house was the grandmother. The other two neighbors also went in the house and helped get everyone out of the house.”
She said of the teamwork, “That’s what happens when good people get together.”
Another neighbor Jonathan Redmond said, “We were out front and we heard an explosion like, it was a propane tank that blew up. We ran around back and saw the fire. We ran around front, and got the family out, and went in and tried to help put the fire out.”
Another neighbor, who asked not to be named, said, “I just heard a boom like something blew up, and then like two minutes later, I heard people screaming and I came outside and they said the house was on fire.”
Trenton’s Housing Inspector Teddy Brown arrived on the scene after he was notified about the house fire. Brown said, “I got called that there was a kitchen on fire. I came to determine how bad it is, and it’s bad so I have to shut it down.”
Chief Patterson said, “You can cook on a back porch, but it has to be so many feet away from the house. They were doing the right thing, they just had the grill too close to the house.”
