Criminal investigation into explosive NJ house fire with 2 deaths

🔥The intense fire in Washington Township started around 2 a.m.

🔥Neighbors report hearing what sounded like explosions, felt two blocks away

🔥Investigators do not believe the fire was accidental

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP (Gloucester) — A man and woman were found dead after an early Sunday morning house fire that authorities believe is suspicious.

Washington Township police said 911 calls about the home on Tranquility Court began coming in around 2 a.m. The home was fully engulfed and beginning to spread to a second home as firefighters arrived.

A series of explosions can be heard in video of the fire. Residents told CBS Philadelphia that they heard the initial explosion two blocks away. Neighbor Suzanne Pinto told 6 ABC Action News it sounded like a bomb went off.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office is leading a criminal investigation of the fire.

"We do not believe that that was accidental in nature and that has a lot to do with why we're conducting a criminal investigation," Chief Of Detectives Tom Gilbert told New Jersey 101.5.

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Twisted and melted siding

The heat was so intense that the siding on a neighboring home melted.

"It was a very consuming fire that had very high temperatures. There are houses to your left and to your right. Both have vinyl siding on the sides of their houses. It looks like it became topping on ice cream. It melted so much it dripped into a whole new form," Gilbert said.

The fire is the second tragedy in Washington Township in the past seven days.

A 10-year-old boy found with a gunshot wound to the head at his home Wednesday afternoon led to a lockdown of the nearby Birches Elementary School. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene.

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