PAULSBORO — When police officer Nicole Thigpen responded to a house fire in the area of her home last month, she was greeted by two surprises.



First, she learned that it was her own home, on the 500 block of Billings Avenue, that caught aflame.

She then ran to the rear of the house, where the flames were rolling over her roof, to find Assemblyman John Burzichelli putting the fire down with a garden hose.

“The firefighters later told me that if he hadn’t put the fire out, the house would have gone up,” said Thigpen on Friday, recalling the Oct. 21 ordeal. “When I got there, I saw the flames rolling over the roof, on the outside of the house, in the back, and they said it was even bigger before I showed up.”

The fire department later ruled the source of the fire electrical in nature.

Burzichelli had been visiting his father’s house, located behind Thingpen’s residence, that Sunday when he said he noticed the flames from across the yard.

Upon seeing smoke and fire, he and his brother, Ted, hopped over the fence between the two properties.

“I don’t want to make things out of proportion; I saw the smoke coming from the back porch, and fortunately there was a garden hose nearby,” said Burzichelli. “There was no one home, so while I was knocking down the fire, my brother went in through a window and took the dogs out of the house. Another neighbor was calling the fire department.”

“I just think it’s something that anyone would do. Anyone in my position would have done the same thing.”

Thigpen, who has been living behind the elder Burzichelli for nine years, disagreed. She added that her experience as a police officer has shown her that few people place themselves in a potentially dangerous situation during an emergency.

“A lot of people don’t have the courage to jump in and do it,” she said. “They just wait until the emergency crews get there.

“I think it’s a big deal.”

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Contact Jason Laday at 856-845-3300 ext. 228 or jladay@southjerseymedia.com.