“The attic space in the garage portion of the roof has some burned trusses in it and some insulation will need to be replaced,” he said. “The living area is totally intact.”
Peck said the Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the blaze, but investigators suspect it may have been caused by an electrical problem involving an extension cord in the chicken coop. Firefighters believe the fire spread from the coop, which is on the property line of 18 Campbell Drive, to the shed, which is adjacent to it on the property line of 2 Monska Drive, Peck said.
Franklin Lakes, Wayne’s neighbor, takes a more permissive view, allowing residents — who need to get a license — to have one bird for every 1.5 square feet of land. Seven households are licensed for chickens, and an eighth applied for a license Wednesday, borough officials said.
The cause of the fire in the chicken coop was not determined, but Holzmueller said the homeowners had “some type of heating system” in the coop to keep the chickens warm. None of the chickens survived.
“They let the dogs out thinking something was going on outside and the side of the garage was on fire,” Deputy Chief Mike Holzmueller of the Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department said in a phone interview.
Fred Profecta, who was deputy mayor when the program was approved, said Maplewood residents objected that backyard coops would damage the town’s settled atmosphere and attract vermin. Profecta, former chairman of Sustainable Jersey, which encourages towns to use “green” methods to conserve energy, said he thinks people leaving food out for stray cats attracts more rodents than chicken coops and he doubts a few backyard hens would cause property values to plummet.