Another Fire Burns in Camden Warehouse District

Another weekend, another fire raged in Camden.

A building went up in flames, going to 2 alarms on the 900 block of Fairview Avenue in Camden.

This fire is not far from three other recent blazes in warehouse buildings in Camden.  Prosecutors are investigating one of those recent fires as an arson.

The fire started around 4 a.m. Saturday morning.  Officials said two firefighters sustained injuries knocking it down.

"One firefighter from Camden fell down a flight of stairs and injured his shoulder and wrist from what I understand," said Chief Michael Harper of the Camden Fire Department. "And a firefighter, actually a battalion chief officer from Gloucester, injured his leg."

On Sunday, June 19, a six-alarm fire tore through the shuttered Concord Chemical Plant.

Also in June, a 12-alarm fire burned a former tire distributorship and several homes over two city blocks. It displaced 16 families, including 30 adults and 35 children.  Firefighting efforts were slowed because three nearby hydrants had been vandalized and were unusable, officials said.

Three days after that blaze, another fire in a warehouse a few blocks away went to eight alarms. Neighbors said the building was frequented by drug dealers and prostitutes.

After the June 19 fire, federal investigators joined in with local officials to probe the cause of the fires.  A spokesperson from the Camden fire department had said the fires might be caused by scavengers entering the buildings illegally to extract scrap metal.

Firefighters aren't speculating whether or not this latest blaze is related to the other three.

"I wouldn't say that, I'm not positive," said Chief Harper. "We won't know until they do a full blown investigation." 

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