Bodycam: N.J. Police Search Burning Mobile Home for Resident

Two South Brunswick police officers kicked open the door of a burning mobile home and waded through smoke-filled rooms to search for a 79-year-old man believed to be inside.

Two South Brunswick police officers forced their way into a burning mobile home Sunday afternoon to search for a 79-year-old man who neighbors believed was still inside.

Bodycam video shows Officers Bryan Garrison and Craig Cleffi kicking open a door and entering a mobile home that was on fire about 1 p.m. on Birch Street in the Monmouth Mobile Homes Park.

The officers searched the smoke-filled rooms for the homeowner after one neighbor said he saw the man’s pickup truck parked out front, according to Deputy Chief Jim Ryan of the township police department.

When officers arrived, they found a neighbor trying to put out the fire with a garden house and another with a fire extinguisher.

“Another neighbor said, ‘I knocked on the door but I can’t get him up.’ So that’s when the officers decided to go into the burning home,” Ryan said.

Video shows the officers calling out and searching the smoke-filled trailer with flashlights. No one was inside, but the fire destroyed the home, according to Ryan. The resident was located a short time later, and is staying with one of his neighbors, Ryan said.

No injuries were reported and the cause of the fire, which does not appear suspicious, is under investigation. Firefighters from Kendall Park, Monmouth Junction and Kingston arrived to fully extinguish the fire, Ryan said.

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