Senior dies in fire at Brandon Farms in Pennington

A 70-year-old man died in a fire in the Brandon Farms development in Pennington on Wednesday morning, police said.

Just after 11 a.m., the Hopewell Township Police Department, along with the Pennington Fire Company and Hopewell Valley Emergency Services, responded to a Pebble Creek Court address after a fire was reported at one of the townhouses in the development.

A woman stopped by the townhouse to check on her uncle and discovered the fire, police said.  Police arrived to find fire and heavy smoke throughout the home. Officers deployed multiple fire suppression devices in the home in an effort to knock some of the fire down, police said.

The homeowner, David Burket, was located by firefighters on the first floor. Firefighters were able to get him out of the home, but he was already dead.

The townhouse suffered fire damage as well as heat, smoke and water damage throughout. It was left uninhabitable. An adjoining townhouse was also severely damaged and left uninhabitable. Other adjoining townhomes suffered minor damage but will be able to be reoccupied.

While this fire doesn’t appear to be suspicious in nature, the incident remains under investigation by the Hopewell Township Police Department, Hopewell Valley Emergency Services, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office and the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The Pennington Fire Company, under the command of Chief Nick Gaudioso, along with the Hopewell Valley Emergency Services, the Hopewell Fire Department, the Union Fire Company and Rescue Squad, the Lawrence Road Fire Company, the Lawrenceville Fire Company, Lawrence Township Emergency Services, the Ewing Township Fire Department, Ewing Township Emergency Services, the West Trenton Fire Company, and the Princeton Fire Department extinguished the fire. The Pennington First Aid Squad was also on scene as well as the Hopewell Township Public Works Department. Pebble Creek Court was closed during this fire-fighting operation.