Three residents, three firefighters hurt in Toms River apartment blaze

TOMS RIVER - A fire at a Kettle Creek Road apartment complex early Monday injured three people living there and left three firefighters with minor injuries.

Dispatchers sent police and first responders to the Mariner's Cove complex about 3:20 a.m. where they found flames shooting out of the front of the structure.

The three residents were able to make it out of the burning apartment building, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said in a statement. They were each taken to Community Medical Center in Toms River. Two were treated and released, while the third was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick for further evaluation, Billhimer said.

There was no word on the condition of the third resident. Details on the firefighters' injuries were not released.

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The American Red Cross provided emergency assistance to 16 people in six families, a spokesperson there said.

After an investigation by the Major Crime Unit-Arson Squad of the prosecutor's office, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Investigation Unit, Toms River detectives and Toms River Township Bureau of Fire Prevention, the fire was ruled accidental.

A cause has not yet been determined, but Billhimer said the "failure of energized electrical equipment cannot be eliminated" as the cause of the fire.

Ken Serrano covers breaking news, crime and investigations. Reach him at 732-643-4029 or kserrano@gannettnj.com .

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Three residents, three firefighters hurt in Toms River apartment blaze