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May 14, 2023

PHOTOS: See 'Large

NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ - Firefighters from Monmouth Junction and surrounding

NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ - Firefighters from Monmouth Junction and surrounding agencies responded to a "large-scale" structure fire at an area warehouse Wednesday afternoon that took nearly a day to extinguish, authorities said.

Shortly before 4 p.m., the Monmouth Junction Volunteer Fire Department was dispatched to the reported roof fire at Davion, Inc. (2 Progress Road), the department said in a statement on Friday.

"Monmouth Junction Fire Chief Scott Smith arrived first on scene within minutes and reported a significant amount of black smoke and flames coming from the roof of the warehouse," the department said. "Firefighters immediately initiated an interior attack on the fire, but were forced to evacuate the building due to heavy fire conditions found in several sections of the building."

Collapsed warehouse materials from the fire resulted in a "deep-seated" blaze that proved difficult to extinguish, the department said.

Five master streams were used to fight the fire, which "rapidly" burned across solar panels, roof construction and rack storage sections inside the warehouse, the department said.

"Once the majority of the fire was knocked down, firefighters re-entered the building and used multiple hoselines to attack the fires burning in the warehouse," fire officials said. "Firefighters began working in rotation to dig through the materials by hand and with the use of fork-lifts and skid-steer machinery to ultimately extinguish the fire."

The scene was finally cleared nearly a day later at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday. The fire is currently under investigation by the South Brunswick Township Fire Safety Bureau.

An estimated 50 fire trucks and over 200 firefighters responded to the blaze from Middlesex, Mercer, Somerset, Monmouth and Ocean counties, Monmouth Junction fire officials said. Additional help at the scene was provided by the South Brunswick Police Department, several EMS agencies, county and state-level fire and EMS coordinators and public works crews.

You can view photos from the scene below: