There was a fatal fire overnight at a home on the border of Essex Fells and Verona. Â Essex Fells police and fire units responded to a fire at 68 Fells Road just after 2:30 a.m., with fire companies from Verona and several other towns just behind them.
According to a statement from Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Essex Fells Police Chief Vincent Kulik, arriving first responders located a woman inside the home and removed her. She was given first aid and transported to Hackensack UMC Mountainside Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 4:06 a.m.
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Task Force, according to Chief Assistant Prosecutor Thomas S. Fennelly. Damage to the home, which sits just south of the townhouses at the foot of White Rock Road, appears to be substantial. Fells Road is closed from Upland Way in Verona to Stocker Road.
The identity of the victim is being withheld pending formal identification and notification of next of kin, according to Fennelly. The cause of death will be determined by an autopsy at the office of New Jersey’s Regional Medical Examiner in Newark, according to Fennelly.
