LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (PIX11) — A thick air of quiet and somberness covered the Lanoka Harbor section of Lacey Township, N.J. as a family and a community grieve the loss of four people, including a teen and an infant, after a house fire.
The fire broke out at a home on Buttonwood Drive Tuesday afternoon. It was ruled by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office as accidental.
“Of course, everybody saw the smoke and then explosions,” said neighbor Alicia Kemp, who knew the family since she first moved to the neighborhood some 14 years ago. “I can’t even explain it. It was like something out of a movie. The smoke was billowing out. Within seconds, the fire was so hot. It was almost into the street at one point.”
The victims were identified as 39-year-old Jennifer Wright, 34-year-old Alaina Wright, a 14-year-old girl, and a 4-month-old baby. The lone survivor of the fire who was home at the time was 67-year-old Brenda Wright, described by neighbors as the grandmother of the home. She got hurt getting out of the home and was taken to the hospital.
The Prosecutor’s Office says they believe the flames started in the front of the home, possibly from discarded smoking material. Neighbors tell us many people lived inside this house and some were not home at the time.
“There was so much stuff in the house,” said Kemp. “It was just a bad situation.”
Many of the neighbors recall hearing cries for help coming from the house. Many of them jumped in to help first responders, some grabbing ladders to try to get inside.
“Everybody came together,” said Kemp. “they tried to get a ladder to try to get those girls out. They were at the window screaming for help. It only took seconds, it seemed, to get the ladder, but they couldn’t- these were just neighbors. They couldn’t get to them.”
As those neighbors continue to brainstorm ways to help the family, they are left to deal with their own grief, offering their prayers and their love.
“My heart goes out to them,” said Kemp. “They just need our prayers and they donations, they have nothing. They probably don’t even have money to bury their kids.”
