2 Killed In Early-Morning House Fire In Jamesburg, N.J.
JAMESBURG, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Two people were confirmed dead following a house fire in New Jersey early Wednesday morning.
CBS2's Alice Gainer was at the scene on Sheridan Street in the Middlesex County town of Jamesburg.
The blaze, which started at around 3:45 a.m., was eventually put out by firefighters, but the road remained closed as investigators, including some from the arson unit, surveyed the scene.
Gainer spoke with distraught neighbors and family members as they heard the news.
Summer Abedrabo said her dog woke her up before any smoke alarm went off.
"I got up and I woke up my parents and I said, 'We need to go out now,'" Abedrabo said. "It was terrifying because I thought it was our house."
"When I wake up and when I look outside the house, whole the house, like full of fire, you know? The fire was, like, unbelievable," neighbor Ibrahim Abedrabo added.
Not long after the fire was extinguished, word came that two people inside the home at 7 Sheridan St. did not make it out.
"My brother died in the fire," Lawanda Kitchen said.
Kitchen owns the home and said her brother lived there.
Kitchen, who is a nurse, rushed to the scene in her scrubs, a stethoscope still around her neck, when she got the call. She identified her brother as 53-year-old Clifford Kitchen Jr.
"Everybody knows him in Jamesburg as 'Boo.' That's what we called him. That was his nickname," Lawanda Kitchen said. "He was a good-hearted person. He loved to have fun. He had a loving heart. He would take anyone in his home."
It's unclear who the second victim is. The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office did not immediately release either victim's name.
The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Sgt. Jason Muller of the Jamesburg Police Department at (732) 521-0011, or Det. Deon McCall of the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office at (732) 745-3848.
