22 August, 1990 (~estimated)

Police Suspect Arson In Tenant House Fire

A potentially dangerous fire at a rear door in a house in the 100 block Witherspoon Street last Wednesday is being viewed by police as arson. No one was injured.

“We’re treating it as being deliberately set,” said Capt. Thomas Michaud. “It is a wooden frame house. The potential for serious damage and injury was significant.Police, he said, have questioned some persons in the area and the investigation by Borough detectives is continuing.

Residents were alerted by the smell of smoke on the first floor. In checking, they discovered that someone had entered an enclosed porch at the rear of the house, stuffed paper around the door and lit it, causing the door frame to catch fire.

Three tenants in the building at the time threw water on the fire and extinguished it. Firemen arrived soon after and made sure everything was out. Capt. Michaud reported that six to eight persons live in the house in what appears to be, he said, “some sort of co-operative sharing.”

Car Fire

The engine compartment of a 1983 BMW was damaged Thursday morning by a fire.

The driver, a 40-year-old Princeton resident. was stopped at the intersection of Ewing Street and Route 206. Lt. Mario Musso said, when the driver of a car in front of him got out and told him that smoke was coming from his engine compartment. Observing heavy smoke and flames, the car owner went to a neighboring house to call police. A Township patrol car happened to drive by at the time, saw the fire but before he could render any aid, the driver of the first car had extinguished the blaze with a extinguisher from his own Car.

Lt. Musso reported that it was the opinion of four firemen who arrived on the scene that the the fire was triggered by burning fuel caused by a baclaire.