Three killed in fire at Spotswood home
BY VINCENT TODARO
Staff Writer

JEFF GRANIT staff A Short Street home is charred and boarded up the day after a blaze killed its three occupants. The cause of the fire may have been a lit candle.

SPOTSWOOD - Three residents of a Short Street home were killed early Sunday morning when a fire ripped through the house.

Officials said the fire claimed the lives of Roman Lipinski, 53, and Alfred Soos, 59, as well as a woman whose identity had not yet been established at press time.

A police officer in the area noticed the fire and called it in at 1:30 a.m. Firefighters found the bodies of the two men in upstairs bedrooms. It is believed that they were trying to get out of the house but were trapped. The woman's body was found downstairs.

The two men and one woman were roommates, officials said.

Mayor Barry Zagnit said authorities believe the fire was accidental and that a lit candle may have been the cause, but they were still investigating the cause of the blaze, which charred about half the two-story home.

The Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office is leading the investigation. Assistant Prosecutor Ralph Cretella confirmed that the fire began in a "rec room" downstairs, and that remnants of candles were found in that room. Investigators, he said, were "leaning toward" the cause being a candle.

Lipinski, a widower, was born in Poland and had resided in South River and Old Bridge before moving to Spotswood five years ago, according to his obituary. He was retired after working for 30 years as a baker for ShopRite stores in East Brunswick, Edison and North Brunswick.

"Obviously you feel real sadness for the victims and their families," Zagnit said. "It's also a difficult situation for the community. You don't want to see anyone lose their lives."

Zagnit, himself a former police chief, said the situation is also frustrating for the borough's responders, such as fire, police and first-aid members, as well as the mutual aid responders.

"They arrive at the scene and their mission is to protect, and very often there's not much you can do and it's not in your power to rescue," he said. "It's a very heartbreaking and difficult situation."

Councilwoman Marge Drozd said one of the men killed graduated in her husband's high school class in South River.

"It's truly a tragedy when you have a loss of life like that," she said.