LINDEN — On Sunday at 6:11 p.m., off-duty Linden police sergeant Andrew Bara was working a security post at the Linden Housing Authority, 1551 Dill Ave. when a fire alarm activated from a third-floor apartment.
The sergeant responded to the third floor and smelled smoke in the hallway. He was then able to force entry into an apartment where he extinguished a small fire on the bathroom floor. The tenant, a 69-year-old woman, was not present in the apartment.
The Linden Fire Department responded to ventilate the apartment and building of smoke. The Fire Department is investigating the cause of the fire, which may have been started by a lit candle.
Bara complained of smoke inhalation and was taken by the Fire Department Ambulance to St. Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, a regional burn center, for treatment.