Fire Doused at Faculty Home at Lawrenceville School

A fire that broke out in the garage of a house on the campus of was extinguished before it could cause any significant damage this afternoon, Friday, Jan. 13.

Spontaneous combustion of rags soaked with a chemical cleaner started the fire in the two-car garage attached to a faculty members’ residence on Woods Drive on the private school’s campus, according to Lawrence Township Fire Inspector Rich Soltis, who investigated the blaze.

The fire, which spread from the rags to the contents of a plastic storage tote and a vacuum, generated a decent amount of smoke and activated a heat detector connected to the home’s fire alarm system, Soltis said.

The alarm system is monitored by Lawrenceville School’s security, he said, and security officers went to investigate the cause of the activation.

They arrived to find smoke issuing from the garage and immediately requested help from the Lawrence Township Fire Department. The township’s daytime duty crew of career firefighters and volunteer firefighters from Lawrenceville, Lawrence Road and Slackwood fire companies were dispatched at 12:42 p.m.

A school security officer used a dry chemical extinguisher to contain the fire until firefighters arrived and the blaze was then put out within minutes, Soltis said.

He said damage was mostly limited to the contents of the storage tote, though heat from the fire partially melted the passenger’s side tail light of an antique car – a 1950s MG convertible – that was in the garage.