House Suffers Exterior Damage After Nighttime Blaze

A Mahwah home suffered some exterior damage after a house sitter started a fire in the home's wood-burning stove at about 9:30 Sunday night, Fire Chief Ed Garza said Monday.

According to Garza, smoke started coming from the stove, and “the person could tell something wasn’t right,” so she called a neighbor to look at it. The neighbor noticed flames coming from the chimney of the Snow Drive home.

Mahwah Fire Companies 1, 2, 3 and 4, and a crew from Suffern all responded to the blaze, which officials said took about an hour and a half to KO.

“There was some damage to the outside of the house, and some small damage on the inside, where we had to remove the stove from where it was in the family room,” Garza said. “But the fire stayed contained to the family room area. It could have been a lot worse if no one was home to report it.”

The homeowners were away at the time of the fire, officials said. No one was injured in the fire.

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