Valley Road Fire Brings Five Trucks

Ellen Gilbert

A crawl space fire started by an electrical short under the floor of a Valley Road residence in the Township brought fire trucks, ambulances, EMT service vehicles, and PSE&G personnel from Princeton and neighboring towns to what Fire Department Chief Daniel Tomalin described as a “first alarm” fire midday on Monday.

Residents of the home were immediately evacuated, and one firefighter whose hand was injured was taken to Princeton Medical Center.

Mr. Tomalin described the fire as “stubborn,” saying that fire fighters had to cut through the floor in order to contain it. The house had no basement, just the crawl space, which is about 30” high under the house requiring firefighters to literally remove the floor to fight the fire. With the Township’s Fire Inspector at a class, a Borough Fire Inspector was on the scene.

Since the house would have be ventilated, Mr. Tomalin thought it was unlikely that residents would be allowed to return to the house that same day. “Fortunately,” he said, “it did not extend up the walls.

A “first alarm fire” calls out fire trucks from Princeton, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and Plainsboro. A Rapid Intervention Team from Rocky Hill was on hand to treat firefighters. In addition to a fire truck from Lawrenceville parked at the Mercer Engine Co. No. 3 firehouse on Witherspoon Street, firefighters in Princeton Junction and Hopewell covered Princeton in the event of any other fires.

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