Sullivan County home fire on Princeton Street quickly extinguished

An off-duty call firefighter discovered a house fire on Princeton Street in Claremont and alerted the Claremont Fire Department, then reportedly responded on foot and helped remove an occupant from a bedroom, officials said. Crews were dispatched at about 9:21 a.m. and had the blaze declared under control at about 9:37 a.m. Thursday, February 13, 2026.

Firefighters arriving at the single-story home found heavy smoke venting from the building’s rear corner and quickly focused efforts to limit spread. Responders were able to extinguish flames and contain damage to a single room, preventing a larger structure loss; no dollar estimate for property damage has been released.

Investigators or officials reportedly determined that smoking material was the cause of the fire, though the finding is described as reported rather than finalized by a named investigative agency. The wording available from emergency accounts notes "smoking material was reportedly found to be the cause of the fire," leaving formal attribution and the investigative authority unspecified in initial reports.

Medical response on scene included treatment of one person at the home; a firefighter suffering smoke inhalation was taken to Valley Regional Hospital in Claremont for evaluation. No names, ages, or current conditions for the treated occupant or the transported firefighter have been released by authorities.

Claremont Fire Department was the primary responding agency for the Princeton Street incident. Public details available so far do not include a street number for the house, the identity of the off-duty call firefighter who called the blaze in and assisted the occupant, the name of the firefighter taken to Valley Regional Hospital, the number of responding units or mutual-aid companies, or a formal incident report with a damage estimate.

City and county officials have not yet issued a detailed statement with those specifics. Residents seeking more information can contact the Claremont Fire Department for the department’s incident report and dispatch logs; Valley Regional Hospital would be the point of contact for confirmation of any hospitalizations, subject to privacy rules. The rapid response on Princeton Street and the off-duty firefighter’s intervention were credited with limiting the fire to one room and getting the situation under control within roughly 16 minutes.