JERSEY CITY – A fire classified by fire officials as ‘suspicious’ displaced three families from a house on Virginia Avenue off West Side Avenue on Sunday, sending a firefighter and resident to Jersey City Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.
NJ.com reported the fire was called in just after noon and brought under control within a hour.
Matthew Kelleher of Rescue 1 was treated for a lacerated hand at Jersey City Medical Center and released, and the owner of the property was taken to JCMC with respiratory problems, Fire Director Armando Roman was quoted as saying.
Three families were evacuated. The building is reportedly a legal two-family, but a family was living illegally in the basement, Roman said.
The fire has been classified as “suspicious,” he said.
This fire is the latest in a series that began in mid-February in Jersey City, though none of the earlier fires have been called suspicious.
Read our report about some of the conditions in old housing that can cause fires in this week’s Jersey City Reporter or on our website.