On May 3rd, 2021, 3 people were killed in a house fire on Jackson Avenue, right here in Wayne, New Jersey. The news of the recent tragedies, as well as the complete destruction of the family home, has stunned hundreds of Wayne residents and has left many questions as to how the fire started and what exactly happened.

The fire department, located very close to the family home, responded at 6:14 pm on Monday, and right around that time, neighbors reported hearing a large explosion, “The windows to the front of the house were blown out … And the back of their house was just a wall of fire,” said one of the neighbors. (CBS New York). Some reports have said that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was also present on Monday night.

Sophomore, Emily Sawyer was playing a Lacrosse game Monday evening, the day of the fire, “I was in the middle of a lacrosse game when some of my teammates and I noticed the black smoke in the air but we couldn’t really tell where it was coming from and we definitely did not think it was a house.”

The victims of the fire, Carlos Guitierrez, his daughter, Katherine Guitierrez, and Katherine’s boyfriend, were all loved by the Wayne community. Katherine worked at Hackensack Meridian Health and, her father, Carlos worked for a landscaping company.

“If there is something I could say to the family, I would wish all the best and send my condolences to the Gutierrez family,” says Sawyer.