New Details Revealed About South Jersey Fire That Could Have Been Worse

If not for regular police patrols, there could have been much more damage from a fire in South Jersey.

On the morning of Wednesday, February 19th, a Middle Township Police Officer was on patrol when a citizen alerted the officer to a fire that had broken out nearby. When the Middle Township Police Officer arrived on site, a building was engulfed in flames.

The fire, which happened at the Burleigh Storage facility on Shunpike Road, damaged more than 50 units. One person, who suffered from smoke inhalation, was taken to the local hospital, Cooper University Hospital (which is approximately 10 minutes away from the site of the fire).

But this fire could have caused much more damage and been more lethal to South Jersey residents if the Middle Township Police were not on patrol Wednesday morning.

New Details Revealed about Fire that occurred in Middle Township, New Jersey

While the fire caused extensive damage to units at the Burleigh Storage, the good news is the fire was contained quickly and did not spread from the property.

Across the street on Shunpike Road is the South Jersey Gas Natural Gas Fueling Station and the Cape May County Recycling Station.  Can you imagine the catastrophic damage if the fire had reached the perimeter of the property?

The Middle Township Police Department released a statement about what the result of their investigation into how the fire started:

"The investigation revealed, Salvatore Gellura of Green Creek, was working in his storage unit and lit (cardboard) in a metal container allegedly to keep warm. A short time later, the fire spread beyond the container and Gellura was unable to control it. Gellura was charged with Arson, 3rd Degree Crime, and False Reports to Law Enforcement, 4th Degree Crime. Gellura was processed and lodged in the Cape May County Correctional Facility."

What a wild series of events that led to this fire errupting at a storage unit in South Jersey.  This area of The Garden State is no strangers to odd fires happening in this area of New Jersey: