Crime & Safety
UPDATE: Vacant Pelican Island Home Catches Fire
Refrigerator motor damaged by flooding deemed to be cause, police said.
A home at 115 Trinidad Ave. in the Pelican Island section of the Township that has been vacant since Hurricane Sandy caught fire at approximately 10:30 this morning from a refrigerator motor that was damaged by flooding, Toms River Police said.
Detective Thomas Dimichele, who was investigating the fire with Cpl. Louis Sulsenti and the Toms River Bureau of Fire Prevention, determined that the fire today was caused by a refrigerator motor. The home was energized with electricity earlier in the day and led to the faulty motor causing the fire, police said.
Fire units from Seaside Heights, Toms River Fire Companies 1 & 2, and East Dover responded and quickly extinguished the blaze to the one-and-a-half-story cape cod, police said.
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Debris were scattered just outside the home on Wednesday afternoon and soot covered the interior walls visible through the windows. Township officials placed a fluorescent label on the front door that deemed the structure as unsafe.
No injuries were reported from the fire, police said.
