A family is mourning the life of a six year old boy who was killed in an apartment fire in Mercer County that forced more than a dozen people from their homes on Thursday. Jayden Gotell Watkins was visiting his great-grandmother for the holidays when the fire struck. Now, the family is surrounded by loved ones as they wrap their heads around what happened on Thursday, Jan.
3. “I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t sleep because it plays back in the mind," Jayden's great-grandmother Dorothy Smith said. Smith told NBC10 that she is still in shock after the 2-alarm fire at Cambridge Hall apartment complex located at 860 Lower Ferry Road in Ewing, New Jersey, around 3 p.
m. Smith describes her great-grandson Jayden as a grandma's boy. The boy from Syracuse, New York, always visited her during the holidays and the summer.
“He was a good kid, very funny kid. He was smart," Smith said. When officers got to the 2 alarm fire at the apartment complex on Thursday, they were told that a young person was trapped on the fourth floor, officials said.
The building was evacuated as officers tried to get to the apartment on the fourth floor where the fire started. All three Ewing Fire Departments were eventually able to get to the apartment where they found and rescued the 6-year-old Jayden who was unresponsive, according to officials. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Officials later reported that 13 police officers, 1 firefighter and 3 residents were among the vic.
