Five-Alarm Fire at Scotch Plains Apartment Complex

Update 9:45 a.m.

Roseanne Menzione, 83, was downstairs making breakfast when she heard her second-floor fire alarm scream Wednesday morning.

"I ran upstairs," she said while outside her home watching firefighters extinguish the blaze. "I saw my pillow and my end table was on fire. ... I could have been sleeping. It happened by my bed."

Captain Brian Mecca of the Scotch Plains Fire Department said a heating pad was found on the bed but it is unclear if that was the cause of the blaze, which remains under investigation.

Roseanne's bed is next to a wall and by the time she saw the fire, she said the flames were large and "shooting out." She called her daughter Virginia Mammolite who lives next door. Virginia and her 24-year-old daughter, Camille, called 911 and rushed over to help Roseanne.

"I sent her out by my mom," Camille Mammolite said.  "I went in and grabbed a photo album, a laptop, keys, a picture and threw it out. I tried to go back upstairs and I just heard crashing. I was just in utter shock.

"You see it in the news you don't think it's going to happen to you. And then you are outside your own house, and your heart breaks."

Mecca said he and his son were the first firefighters to respond. They went up to the second floor and saw the bedroom "fully involved." Mecca said they knocked down the fire and saw it had spread to the ceiling. Soon, it had spread to all six units in the apartment complex. At least four of the units were damaged by flames and all six contained smoke and fire damage, Mecca said.

"She's very lucky the fire didn't start while she was in bed," he said.

As the firefighters worked on the blaze, the family waited calmly. Virginia's husband who works in New York City was on his way home to help. They recently purchased a house in Tom's River and will move there for the time being.

Roseanne has lived in her home for 26 years, the first five of which were with her husband.

"My whole life is in that house," she said. "The pictures. The jewelry."

"I went up the stairs never dreaming – sometimes they go off like that – but this time it was real," she continued. "Your whole life is in your bedroom. I was hysterical, but there was nothing I could do. I'm just happy I have my life."

Original Story

The  is fighting a five-alarm fire at the Southwyck Village apartment complex on Yarmouth Court in Scotch Plains.

The six-unit building caught fire around 7 a.m. and about two dozen residents were evacuated.

Police on the scene report no one was injured in the blaze. The cause of the fire is unclear.

About five fire departments are assisting Scotch Plains and EMS units from Scotch Plains and Union County have responded.

"I opened my door to move my car and, here we come, three houses on fire," resident Natalie Schwartz said while standing outside the burning buildings.  "I've lived here eight yeras and this has never happened."