By DON STINE
A 76-year-old woman was hospitalized March 27 after a fire broke out in her fifth-floor apartment in the Munroe Towers in Asbury Park.
Fire department spokesperson Garrett Giberson said that Jessie Wise was rescued from her apartment by Asbury Park firefighters Paul Annunziata and Brett Nielson. Wise was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune for smoke inhalation and evaluation.
Wise was found under the bed covers in her bedroom in unit 5-N. The fire call came in at 10:47 a.m. and residents on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors of the 15-story residential building, at 610 Sewall Avenue, were evacuated.
“The firefighters were confronted with heavy smoke and fire conditions that also blew out the windows in the apartment. Firefighters did an outstanding job quickly extinguishing the fire,” Giberson said.
Giberson said damage was contained to that single unit and that tenants were allowed back in the building in the early afternoon.
Fire departments from Asbury Park, Neptune, Wayside, and Wanamassa responded to the scene, as did the Monmouth County EMS Task Force.
Giberson said the cause of the fire is considered accidental and is undetermined as of Thursday. The fire is still being investigated by the Monmouth County Fire Marshals Office, the Prosecutors Office, and the Asbury Park Fire Prevention Division.
A more severe fire occurred at the Munroe Towers in September, 2007 when a female tenant in her 15th-floor apartment, which was cluttered with her belongings, was hospitalized.
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