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A 76-year-old woman was transported to a nearby hospital after a fire broke out in her apartment Thursday.

Member of the Asbury Park Fire Department [APFD] responded to a call at 10:47 a.m. notifying them of a fire that broke out in one of the apartments in the Munroe Towers apartment complex, said Garrett Giberson, spokesman for the APFD.

The fire broke out an apartment on the fifth floor of the 15-floor complex, he said.

Firefighter Paul Annunziata and Capt. Bret Nielsen found the tenant of the apartment, Jessie Wise, hiding under the blankets of the bed in her apartment. They took her out of the unit and transported her to Jersey Shore Medical Center to be evaluated for smoke inhalation, he said.

Some of the surrounding units may have sustained minor smoke damage, but the fire was contained to the living room area of Wise’s apartment and Asbury Park fire fighters were able to bring the fire under control quickly, said Giberson.

At this time, the cause of the fire is deemed accidental and undetermined, Giberson said.

When police and firefighters arrived, they immediately began to knock on the doors of the apartments on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors to evacuate residents, some of whom had already self-evacuated, he said.

Reports of an explosion surfaced early after the incident took place, but Giberson was unaware of any and believes it may have been misconstrued as glass from a large picture window that had shattered [shown at top] when the fire self-ventilated, he said.

The apartment is uninhabitable. Wise is eligible for assistance through the city’s social services department or the Red Cross if she does not have any family members to turn to, he said.

One firefighter was also taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center with minor injuries, Giberson said.

Units left the scene around 12:30 p.m.

[Photos provided courtesy of Garrett Giberson.]

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