Firefighter charged with setting fire at Foodtown Colonia firefighter trainee worked there, helped fight blaze BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer WOODBRIDGE - Members of the Colonia Fire Department were shocked last week when police arrested and charged one of their own with arson. Elijah James, 18, Colonia, was arrested and charged July 17 in connection with a fire at the Foodtown on Inman Avenue that occurred five days earlier. James was two weeks into his training at the Middlesex Fire Academy and three weeks overall as a volunteer fireman with the Colonia Fire Department. He was also a Foodtown employee at the time. The criminal complaint alleges that James completed a shift at the Foodtown just prior to the time the fires were set, left the store and subsequently returned to the fire scene with the responding Colonia Fire Department. "This was an unfortunate incident," said Colonia Fire Commissioner James Souza. "We are all shocked." James was charged with igniting the fire in two separate areas in the storage room area of the Foodtown, police said. The first area that was affected by the fire was a wooden pallet stacked behind the produce refrigeration units. The second point were stacks of bundled cardboard located near the rear loading dock area of the storage room. Both points were in separate rooms and approximately 30 feet apart. Police responded to the fire at 10:06 p.m. July 12. The Colonia Fire Department and the township Office of Emergency Management were on the scene fighting the heavy smoke billowing from the ventilation system at the rear of the store, police said. Everyone had been evacuated from the supermarket, police said. Police deemed the fire suspicious in nature, due to the separate ignition points and no obvious cause of combustion. James was taken into custody, processed and released from the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick after posting $10,000 cash bail. He will be arraigned in state Superior Court, New Brunswick. The investigation remains ongoing and will be submitted to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office for prosecution.