DEERFIELD TOWNSHIP, N.J. --
A fire ripped through a South Jersey home Friday killing a mother of three, police said.
Investigators are calling the fire suspicious. Images | Video The flames broke out at about 5 a.m. on the 500 block of Morgan Avenue in Deerfield Township, Cumberland County.
Relatives told NBC 10 the victim is 42-year-old Sonya Mullins, a corrections officer at South Woods State Prison.
Firefighters from four communities responded to the scene. Officials said the victim's children were not inside at the time.
"She was a good mother, that's all, she was a good mom. Loved her to death," Jakheira Rhett, the victim's daughter, said.
Mullins' three children are mourning her death.
We tried, we banged on the doors," Ellis Davis, a neighbor, said.
Neighbors said they saw flames shooting from the home where the 42-year-old moved in last month.
"I took my truck and drove it on the front yard and began to blow the horn, and I was blowing, blowing, blowing, trying to make as much noise as we possibly could but to no avail," Davis said.
Authorities said Mullin was found dead on the floor inside. Detectives and arson investigators soon converged on the scene of the suspicious blaze, located just yards away from the local fire department.
"When we got here, as quick as we did, it was already coming through the roof so the fire already had a good jump on us," Dep. Chief Pete Jilinski, of Rosenhayn Vol. Fire Company, said.
Several of Mullins' colleagues came to the burned out home and stared in disbelief.
Officials said it appears the fire started in a back bedroom. Investigators are looking into whether the mother and grandmother received any threats before losing her life.
"It's a very terrible situation for anybody to have a fire and especially that kind of fire and somebody to lose their life in it," Davis said.
The medical examiner is expected to begin to take a closer look at the victim's body Friday evening. Investigators said they hope that'll shed more light on whether something suspicious caused her death.
