Below, property owner Lee Jasper Rogers talks with Fire Marshal Stanley Sickels. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Fire tore through a Red Bank home and filled a street-level office with smoke Sunday afternoon.
Attorney Lee Jasper Rogers tells redbankgreen he was working in his office at 298 Shrewsbury Avenue when “I heard a popping sound, and when I went into the next room, all I could see was black smoke.”
Volunteer firefighter Tom Doremus awaits a hose as flames show through the attic window. (Click to enlarge)
Rogers said he called 911, but “the smoke drove me out before I could even finish the call.
No one was believed to have been injured in the blaze, reported at about 3:50 p.m. Rogers, who lives in the house, said no one else was present at the time.
“I don’t know what the heck happened,” he said, as volunteer firefighters brought him clothing and a computer they retrieved undamaged from the house and office.
Rob and Nancy Penchinski, of Herbert Street, said they were driving past the house when they saw smoke pouring from the alleys between two nearby houses.
“It was really billowing,” said Nancy. “Man, it really went up quick.”
Rob started banging on the doors of the two neighboring houses, alerting a man and a baby who had been unaware of the fire in one, he said.
