By Barbara A. Preston | Posted November 13, 2025
Chris Getz awoke to a disaster. His small home on Opossum Road and Thiemarx Terrace in Skillman was on fire at 4 am on Friday, November 7. His disabled mother, JoAnn, and his brother James were asleep in their rooms, as their two Beagles were pacing.
“I heard a popping noise. I opened the front door and found our front porch was completely engulfed in flames. We had 30 seconds to get out of the house,” Chris recalls.
“I was in my boxers. I jumped up, ran through the house to my mom, who is bedridden. My brother and I got her to the floor, tried to drag her to the [backdoor] handicap ramp. By the time we got her near there, the house was filled with coal-colored dark smoke.”
They couldn’t see anything, or breathe.
At this point, Montgomery Township police officers arrived on the scene and pulled JoAnn to safety. Now in her 80s, she had worked in the Montgomery School District for 30 years prior to her retirement.
The Montgomery fire inspector with Chris Getz inside the Getz home, which a fire of unknown origin had destroyed earlier this week.
Photograph by Barbara A. Preston
Montgomery Police Lt. Adam Verducci, who is also the fire chief of Montgomery Township Volunteer Fire Company #2 that responded to this fire, said " “We applaud the Montgomery Police Department for their heroic efforts in rescuing a victim from the fire. We greatly value our strong working relationship with all first responders in Montgomery Township. We wish a swift recovery to everyone affected by this incident."
>>Read More: Fire Destroys Opossum Road Home in Skillman, First Responder Plus Two Residents Transported to Hospital for Smoke Inhalation
Thank you to all the donors, including Stronger Together Women in Montgomery led by Samira Ghani, who have donated significant funds to help the Getz family. Donations may be sent to >>GoFundMe.
Chief Silvio Bet told The Montgomery News, “In a courageous act of bravery Sergeant James Ward, Officer Vanessa Hunter, and Officer Ryan Martinez were able to remove a non ambulatory woman from a burning home risking their own lives to save hers.
“With flames closing in and smoke filling the air, the three officers worked together to carry the woman to safety in a remarkable display of heroism and selflessness. I’m very proud and humbled by their bravery and commitment to serving and protecting the residents of Montgomery Township.”
JoAnn was transported to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital in Somerset for smoke inhalation and a firefighter was taken to Princeton Medical Center for evaluation/smoke inhalation. James and Chris refused medical assistance. Both JoAnnn and the firefighter have now been released from the hospital.
Above: Photos of the Getz family and their Skillman home, and of the firefighters.
Photos by Barbara A. Preston and the MTVFC#2
The Getz family is now homeless, and the insurance company says it will take at least a year to rebuild. The house is totaled. What remains, must be torn down and removed.
Chris, who graduated from Montgomery High School in 1986, is self-employed, in the antique business. He said he is going to take time off from work to help the family rebuild. He and his brother live with their mother as her caretakers.
JoAnn is well known in the community.
Chris says his mother [JoAnn] started working in the local school district in 1978. She retired in 2009, then stayed for three years as a clerical aide.
JoAnn has a “dubious distinction,” he said. “She is the only Montgomery School Board employee who has worked … in every single school and in every facet of the school district.”
Chris along with his brother and sister all attended the local school district. James graduated in 1983 and their sister Annie graduated in 1988.
“At one point, she helped a student in my grade who was handicapped. Her job was to get him from point A to point B. As I went from one school to another, so did mom!”
Johnny Rooney of Rocky Hill, a current Montgomery teacher who graduated from Montgomery High School and knows the Getz family sent a text to The Montgomery News.
“I went to school with her kids,” Rooney wrote. “She was an assistant teacher, worked in the cafeteria, was the copy room clerk, sold tickets at every home basketball and school play for three, maybe four decades. And, she worked detention. She was everywhere.”
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The Getz family wants to thank the police, the EMS, and the firefighters for their invaluable help.
Chris also thanked the Otto Kaufman Center, especially Director John Groeger and Lisa Carra, who is the new community resource manager and senior center director, and Adriana Cortez, the facility aide.
“Mom got meals on wheels,” Chris said. “The members of the community center have been so helpful to her over the years. The Montgomery News must do an article on them so people know about this valuable resource in town.”
Following the disaster, Chris escaped wearing only his boxers. John, Lisa, and Adriana gave him and his family clothes to wear, food to eat, and shelter until they could get into temporary housing at Hampton inn in Flemington.
Chris Getz searches for his partner's ashes, which he had on a shelf in his room.
Photo by Barbara A. Preston
Chris’ eyeglasses had melted, his car keys and cell phone where lost in the house, and even photos of his partner (who is recently deceased) burned. His partner’s ashes, which he saved in an urn, are now mixed in with ashes of his family home.
