Firefighters in Deptford, New Jersey, were busy overnight as the second floor of an apartment collapsed, officials said, as crews worked to extinguish a three-alarm fire. According to Deptford Fire Department Chief Richard Thomas, crews responded to a report of a fire on a rear porch at an apartm ent complex along the 100 block of Hemlock Court in Deptford, New Jersey, to find the entire backside of the structure overtaken by flames. “Upon my arrival, the whole back of the building was gone,” said Thomas. Through the evening, he said, the incident grew into a three-alarm fire that saw at least nine apartments lost or damaged to the fire. “The flames were fifty feet up into the air, if not higher,” Thomas said. However, Thomas said, no one was injured in this incident as first responders were able to clear the three-story building before fire crews arrived at the scene. One resident did need to be evaluated for smoke inhalation, he said, but they refused medical treatment. As crews worked to extinguish this fire, Thomas said, the second floor of the building collapsed, crashing down onto the first floor. But, no firefighters were injured, he said. Instead, the collapse forced crews to work in a “defensive operation” for safety once the building became unstable, Thomas said. The fire was placed under control by about 2:56 a.m. Thomas said an investigation into the cause of the fire remains under investigation. ...read more read less