Introduction
Anthony P. Dowidowicz
Anthony P. Dowidowicz was a career Camden firefighter. He was born on April 7, 1942, one of four children born to Mary and Anthony T. Dawidowicz, the others being sisters Mary Ann, Veronica, and Jane. The Dowidowicz family had come to Camden by 1942. The City Directory for 1943 shows a residence at 1720 Fillmore Street in Camden’s old Eighth Ward, and the family remained at that address as late as the fall of 1970. His father worked for the American Dredge Company in Camden for 47 years.
After serving in the United States Navy during the early 1960s, Anthony P. Dowidowicz married Diana Ruggieri in 1965. On May 1, 1969 he was appointed to the Camden Fire Department. He was initially assigned to Engine Company 2, then went to Engine Company 6. After a few years with Engine Company 7 on Kaighn Avenue he was promoted to Captain, and assigned to service with Rescue Company 1. Late in his career Captain Dowidowicz was stationed at Engine Company 3, a short walk from the old family home on Fillmore Street, where he led 4th Platoon, consisting of himself, Arthur J. Gibson, Ralph Jones, and Mark Kogut.
After 27 years of distinguished service to the City of Camden, Anthony Dowidowicz retired from the Fire Department.
Anthony and Diana Dowidowicz and their family moved from Camden when residency requirements were relaxed in the 1970s. After leaving the Fire Department, he spent a good deal of time fishing and enjoying life aboard his boat.
Last a resident of Deptford NJ, Anthony P. Dowidowicz passed away on December 13, 2008.
Erie Street Fire Kills Four Children
Camden Courier-Post —
Source of fire obscure
BY LAUREL REID-GAVETT / Of the Courier-Post
CAMDEN — The intense heat of a fire that killed four children here yesterday caused so much damage to their Erie Street row home that authorities are having trouble determining the cause of the blaze.
“It was hot in there. And when it’s that hot, everything looks like it was the cause,” Camden Fire Marshal Harold Pike said yesterday. “This thing was so darn hot, it looked like the whole first floor started the fire.”
A fireman at the scene said he found a melted soda bottle in the kitchen on the first floor of the two-story home at 328 Erie St. in the city’s North Camden section. The fireman said it would have required temperatures of about 1,000 degrees to melt the bottle.
Pike said investigators do not suspect arson at this point. He also said authorities do not believe the fire was electrical in origin or that it was caused by careless smoking. Investigators have been told no one in the house smoked cigarettes, he said.
“We believe it was an accidental fire,” Pike said. “And we’re trying to find out what that accident was. It’s gutted down to the floor and it’s going to be very difficult.”
The 6 a.m. fire took the lives of Tanya Adams, 11; Andre Adams, 10; Steven Adams, 9, and Tyhe Adams, 8.
The children’s mother, Merel Hall, and her husband, Robert, who were in an upstairs front bedroom, managed to escape through a window. But the children were trapped in their rooms.
The bodies of the three boys were found huddled in a closet in their bedroom in the upstairs middle section of the home. Authorities said the boys apparently fled to the closet in fear. Tanya’s body was found on the floor by a window in her upstairs rear bedroom.
Firefighters wind up their battle yesterday against a morning blaze that killed four children in their home on Erie Street in North Camden. Second floor: Edward Murtaugh – Robert “Sonny” Frett. Ground: Joseph Marini – Richard Brooks – William Colucci
Cause of intense row house fire still unknown
Continued from Page 1A
Assistant Camden County Prosecutor Dennis Wixsted said autopsies, conducted yesterday by county medical examiner William T. Read, showed the children died of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation. Wixsted, who was present at the autopsies, said the children also sustained some burns.
Mrs. Hall’s brother, LeRoy Adams, who lives across the street from the Halls, said he tried to enter the second floor to rescue the children but was driven back by the smoke and flames.
Adams said he was awakened at about 6 a.m. by Mrs. Hall’s screams. He said he ran to his bedroom window and saw his sister standing on the porch roof, screaming, “Somebody please help me! My kids are still in there!”
Adams said he dressed quickly, ran outside and scrambled onto the roof to help his sister and her husband. His sister was able to climb down and her husband fell to the sidewalk, Adams said.
The Halls were taken to Cooper Medical Center, Camden, where both were admitted for treatment.
A hospital spokeswoman said Mrs. Hall, 27, was suffering from multiple trauma but was in satisfactory condition today. Hall, 21, was in fair condition with a broken wrist and broken ankle.
Hallie Adams, 50, Mrs. Hall’s mother, was released from the hospital after treatment for anxiety, the spokeswoman said. Monica Adams, 17, Mrs. Hall’s sister, was treated for smoke inhalation and later released. Both women also lived across the street from the Halls.
Grief-stricken relatives watched in horror as, one by one, the covered bodies of the children were removed from the home and placed into two white station wagons bearing the seal of the Camden County medical examiner’s office.
One woman who had been standing in front of the gutted home ran screaming and crying to a house across the street when firemen carried the first body out on a stretcher. A neighbor who ran to the woman was one of the children’s aunts.
Another woman, identified by neighbors as the children’s grandmother, was supported by a young man and woman as she walked from the Hall’s home and moaned, “Oh, my Lord!”
Harold H. Pike said the fire was reported at 6:16 a.m. A second alarm went out seven minutes later. The fire was under control by 6:45 and was extinguished by 8 a.m., he said.
Pike said the home had no smoke or heat detectors and that the walls were made of thin paneling, “which generates huge amounts of heat.”
“The path of the fire as it moved upstairs was such that anyone in the middle and rear bedrooms, where the children were found, would have been the first to be trapped,” Pike said.
At the scene, fireman Anthony Dowidowicz said children should be taught in school or by their parents that it is dangerous to hide in the midst of a fire.
“The worst thing to do is to hide in a closet or under a bed,” he said. “Firemen don’t know where you are. And that doesn’t make it any easier.”
“Panic is something you can’t control,” Pike said. “Most children do panic and attempt to hide. You can’t legislate panic.”
However, authorities said the home was filled with such intense flames that no rescue was possible.
Pike said Mr. and Mrs. Hall were too distraught yesterday to provide any information or clues as to what might have started the fire.
The fire also spread to the upper floors of the two rowhouses on either side of the Hall home. The homes were occupied, but the residents escaped without injury, Pike said.
The fire was being investigated by Pike’s office, the Camden County fire marshal’s office, Camden police and the county prosecutor’s office. Law enforcement agencies routinely are called in on fire cases involving death, authorities said.
Weekend was quieter than usual
Camden Courier-Post —
Courier-Post staff
CAMDEN — City fire and police officials said Mischief Night and the overall Halloween weekend were much quieter than even a normal weekend in the city.
According to statistics provided by the two departments, 36 fire calls were recorded between 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. Sunday, and 743 police calls were recorded between 6 p.m. Friday and midnight Sunday. Most were described as routine.
On a normal weekend, the Camden Fire Department will respond to between 20 and 25 calls each day, Chief Kenneth Penn said.
During the corresponding 6 p.m. Friday to midnight Sunday period on the preceeding [sic] weekend, police reported 864 calls.
Six of the 36 fire calls were to buildings, five of them vacant. Of all the fires, six are believed to have been deliberately set, Penn said.
The only major blaze was a three-alarm fire in a South Camden warehouse around midnight Saturday. It resulted in injuries to fire captains Dennis Dowhy, Anthony Dowidowicz and Joseph Broccoli, all of whom were treated and released from local hospitals.
Police arrested Luis Angel Perez, 18, whose address was not available, and charged him with aggravated arson. He was held in Camden County Jail, officials said.
Remembrance
The best I can offer about Tony Dowidowicz is that if I was trapped in a burning building I’d sure as hell want Tony to be working.
— Jim Alexander, December 15, 2008
Obituary
Camden Courier-Post —
Dowidowicz, Anthony P. On December 13, 2008 of Deptford, formerly of Camden. Age 66. Beloved husband of Diana M. (nee Ruggieri) of 43 years. Loving father of Tina and her husband Dan Giaquinto and Anthony Dowidowicz. Devoted “Little Pop-Pop” to Danny Giaquinto. Dear brother of Maryann Urban (Robert), Veronica Dick (the late Charles), Janie Miller (the late Robert) and brother-in-law of Gina White (Steve). Also survived by many nieces, nephews, cousins and God-children.
Anthony retired as a Captain from the Camden City Fire Department after 27 years of service. He proudly served his country in the U.S. Navy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He loved fishing on his boat the “Lady Di” and was known as “Tony the Fisherman.”
Relatives and friends are invited to attend the viewing Thursday morning from 8 to 11am at Gardner Funeral Home, Runnemede. Funeral Mass 12 noon at Most Holy Redeemer RC Church, Westville Grove. Interment private. In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Anthony’s name to the American Cancer Society, 1851 Old Cuthbert Road, Cherry Hill, NJ 08034.