By Matt Gray
nj.com
MILLVILLE, N.J. — Crews have recovered the body of one of two girls reported missing after a massive fire swept through a Cumberland County neighborhood late Wednesday.
Six homes were destroyed and 23 people were displaced in the blaze on South 4th Street in Millville, city officials said.
Officials reported that two juveniles, sisters ages 8 and 10, were unaccounted after the fire.
“We just recovered one victim 20 minutes ago,” Millville City Commissioner Kirk Hewitt confirmed around midday Thursday.
The identification of the victim is pending, he said.
Crews are continuing to dig through the rubble for the other child.
“We’re getting ready to resume the search. We just had a chimney fall, so we have to clear that and they’ll resume the search right in the area where they found the first girl,” said Hewitt, who is also the city’s public safety director.
The father of the girls was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries, officials confirmed. No other injuries were reported.
The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing, Hewitt said.
Officials will also investigate why a fire hydrant near the scene wasn’t working as crews fought the blaze.
“We used all the water we had on the engines to put out the fire and we ran into a water supply problem with the closest hydrant,” Millville Fire Chief John Wettstein reported early Thursday morning.
Firefighters ran 800 feet of hose to a second hydrant and another 600 to 700 feet to a third to keep fighting the flames, he said.
It took firefighters five to six hours to bring the blaze under control, Wettstein said.
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