The three-alarm fire at Cooper River Plaza forced hundreds from the 14-story building and displaced about 40 residents.
PENNSAUKEN, N.J. — A woman was hospitalized early Monday after escaping a fifth-floor apartment during a three-alarm fire at a Pennsauken high-rise, while hundreds of other residents were evacuated from the building, fire officials said.
Fire crews were sent to Cooper River Plaza on McClellan Avenue at about 2 a.m. Oct. 26. Pennsauken Fire Chief Jonathan Hutton said firefighters arrived to find flames in a fifth-floor apartment. The woman had left the apartment from the fifth floor before first responders reached her, according to officials. She was taken to a hospital. Fire officials had not released her condition in the first hours after the fire.
The blaze quickly became a three-alarm response and affected at least 20 apartments. Officials said several hundred residents were evacuated as firefighters worked to contain the flames. About 40 people remained displaced after most tenants were allowed back into the building later Monday morning.
Hutton told NBC10 that investigators believed the fire began in the apartment occupied by the injured woman before spreading and affecting other units. Officials had not determined what caused the fire, and the investigation remained underway Monday morning.
Firefighters brought the blaze under control within about 20 minutes, according to KYW Newsradio. By about 6 a.m., many residents had been permitted to return to their apartments. Residents of the most heavily affected area, including units on the fifth floor, remained unable to return.
The American Red Cross was assisting people displaced by the fire. No additional injuries had been reported by fire officials Monday morning. The number of residents temporarily forced from their homes was estimated at about 40.
The fire also prompted renewed attention to how residents respond to alarms in large apartment buildings. Some tenants told local news outlets that alarms at the property had sometimes been dismissed as false alarms in the past. Hutton said residents should treat every alarm activation as a possible fire and leave the building when an alarm sounds.
Investigators were working Monday to determine how the fire started and assess the damage to the affected apartments. Officials had not announced when all displaced residents would be able to return, and no updated information on the hospitalized woman’s condition had been released by fire authorities.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 26, 2026.