Intense winds fuel Mullica Hill house fire

MULLICA HILL, N.J. - A home in Mullica Hill was destroyed as flames were fueled by high winds.

Joanne Sowney wasn't home when a fire raced through her Mullica Hill home on Harrisonville Road on Thursday afternoon chasing her family from the house.

"My husband, son and my two precious granddaughters were home at the time because of the situation with the COVID-19," she told FOX 29.

Sowney's husband, children and grandchildren escaped the home where they've lived for the past 27 years. They were not injured.

Fire officials say 50 plus mile per hour winds whipped this fire, spreading it so quickly it was impossible to save the two story home.

Fire officials conceded the closest fire hydrant was way down the block,which forced firefighters to use water from tanker trucks and lay down hundreds of feet of hose. The flames were so intense at one point they melted the vinyl siding on the home next door.

Sowney says her husband was taken to the hospital to be checked out. She stood in a neighbor's driveway and watched firefighters and county fire investigators comb through the house looking for a cause. Her family's future now up in the air.

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