Fire investigators are on the scene Monday morning at 9 N. Huntington Ave. after a blaze Sunday night that caused heavy damage.
MARGATE – Four people escaped harm and one firefighter was injured in a fire that broke out under the floor of a residence at 9 N. Huntington Ave. at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 4.

Margate Fire Chief Tony Tabasso said the blaze started in the crawlspace under the fireplace in the living room, and firefighters had to cut holes in the floors and walls to access the fire.

The occupants had a fire going in the fireplace at the time, and realized something was amiss when they saw smoke coming from the heating vents in the floor, Deputy Fire Chief Dan Adams said.

Tabasso said Monday that an investigation by fire investigators Chris Baumgartel and Michael Palmer points to faulty construction of the fireplace in the residence, which was built in 1941 and is the home of former Margate City Commissioner Tom Markowski.

The chief said there was a clean-out box for the fireplace on the outside of the home and another in the crawl space where accumulated ash from the fireplace would drop, and embers must have sparked a fire under the floor.

Adams said firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke in the home.

“We chased the fire. It caused a lot of damage because it was in the crawl space and in the walls,” he said.

Tabasso said he recalled all off-duty firefighters plus the squad on duty.

“We had the entire department called back for this fire,” he said. “That crawl space was so small it was inaccessible, and the fire ran the whole crawlspace.”

He said the nature of a fire is to run along the joists of a building.

“The fire will find areas where the pipes go and follow along there. That is how it got to the second floor and into the walls. There was a large void behind a closet on the first floor. The fire got in that void and made its way to the second floor,” Tabasso said. “We had to cut holes in the floor and eventually into the side of the house to get to the fire and get it out.”

Adams said firefighters finally wrapped up a little after 4 a.m.

The Margate Fire Department put out a general alarm and called on Ventnor, Longport and Ocean City for mutual aid.

Tabasso said Somers Point and Northfield were called in to cover the two Margate stations while the crews were fighting the blaze. Eventually Northfield was also called to the scene, so an Atlantic City crew was called to cover the Margate station.

“It is not that this particular fire was so huge that we called in so much manpower, rather the nature of this fire,” Tabasso said. “That it was in the walls and in the crawl space made it very hard to fight. Our guys were using big saws to cut holes in the floor and in the walls. This was just exhausting work, and we needed to call in fresh manpower because our guys were getting so tired.”

A firefighter from the Northfield Fire Department was injured at the scene and treated and released, according to Northfield Fire Chief Lauren Crook.

Sunday’s fire is the second residential fire Margate firefighters have battled in a month. A fire Jan. 7 at a three-story home on North Furlough Avenue claimed two elderly occupants.