Introduction
Edward F. Murtaugh
EDWARD F. MURTAUGH was born in Camden on January 27, 1947 to John J. Murtaugh Jr. and his wife, the former Saimi Perala. He was named after his late uncle, Private Edward F. Murtaugh, who was killed in action in Italy in 1944. His family lived at 1169 Bergen Avenue in Camden’s Cramer Hill neighborhood.
Tragedy struck in March of 1963 when Ed Murtaugh and nine other teenagers from the neighborhood piled into a convertible driven by 21 year-old William Hummell for a ride through South Jersey. Near Atco the car went through a guardrail near a railroad bridge, plunged 50 feet to the tracks, hitting high-powered electric lines on the way down. Four of the young people were killed, Robert E. Shelley, Ellen Marren, Judith Sviben, Dorothy Fitzpatrick. William Hummel, the driver, was seriously injured.
David Murtaugh and four others, Carol McKee, John Latko, David McBride, and Joseph Rotchford escaped with cuts and bruises. Interestingly enough, both Edward Murtaugh and Joseph Rotchford later became Camden fire fighters.
Edward F. Murtaugh was drafted in 1966. After his entrance into the United States Army he completed basic training after which he was sent to Vietnam. He served from 1967 to 1968 with the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, 9th Infantry Division, at Bearcat, Bien Hoa province, Vietnam.
Shortly after returning from Vietnam and receiving his honorable discharge from the military, Edward F. Murtaugh became a member of the Camden City Fire Department. He served for many years with Engine Company 6. He rose through the ranks to the rank of Captain. His last command was at Engine Company 10. Captain Murtaugh served with distinction until his retirement in January of 2000.
In 1991 Edward Murtaugh joined the South Jersey Vietnam Veterans Association. He served for several years as Sergeant of Arms, and for one year as President. He was well known in veteran’s organization circles for his dedication to aiding fellow servicemen. He was awarded the Camden County Veterans Special Recognition Award in October 2005 by the Camden County Department of Veterans Affairs.
Last a resident of Westmont, New Jersey, Edward Murtaugh passed away suddenly on November 22, 2006.
Driver, 5 Others Survive
Camden Courier-Post —
Four Camden teenagers were killed and six others injured shortly after 8 p.m. Monday when the car in which they were riding crashed off a bridge in Berlin Borough.
The dead were identified by state police as:
Dorothy Fitzpatrick, 15, of 1228 N. 32nd st.
Ellen Marren, 15, of 901 N. 30th st.
Robert Shelley, 15, of 1313 N. 28th st.
Judith Ann Sviben, 13, of 1058 N. 32nd st.
The driver, William Hummel, 21, of 1033 Bergen ave., was admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in serious condition with head and internal injuries and cuts.
Power Lines Hit
State police at Berlin barracks said the 1962 convertible, purchased by Hummel two weeks ago, ran out of control and crashed through a guardrail on the Jackson rd. bridge and fell 25 feet in a maze of 6,600-volt, high-tension railroad signal wires. The car landed on the ground near the tracks of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines.
Police said they could not approach the wrecked car, which landed on its roof, for more than 30 minutes while waiting for power to be turned off.
Six of the youths, including Hummel, either were thrown from the car or crawled out.
The power was cut off at a utility line which carried the same voltage as the car fell into. The car had twisted between the bridge and underneath the tracks.
Released after treatment at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden: David McBride, 16; Edward Murtaugh, 16; John M. Latko, 16; Joseph Rotchford Jr., 16; Carol McKee, 15. They all suffered cuts and bruises.
Latko and Rotchford said the group had left a Camden luncheonette for a pleasure ride shortly before the crash.
Hospital aides said some of the victims had burns, but could not say whether they were caused by the high-power lines or from the fire which followed the crash.
Autopsies were planned today to determine if the victims died from the crash or from electric shock.
4 Teens Killed In Crash
Trenton Times —
BERLIN — AP — A car loaded with young people out for a pleasure ride crashed through a guardrail last night and clipped high power lines as it plummeted 30 feet to a railroad track. Four died in the crash, and six others were injured.
State Police said the car, a 1962 convertible, failed to make a sharp turn as the road approached a bridge over a Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Railroad line.
As the car plunged it snagged power lines carrying 6,600 volts of electricity. Although crackling electric lines were draped over the car, four managed to get out right away. The two other survivors were freed after power was turned off. A brief fire also flared.
All those in the car were from Camden.
The state police said the victims were Dorothy Fitzpatrick, 15, Judith Sviben, 13, Ellen Marren, 15, and Robert E. Shelley, 15.
Seriously injured was William Hummel, 21. The State Police said he was the driver and had purchased the car just two weeks ago. He was taken to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.
The others were David McBride, 15, Edward Murtaugh, 16, John M. Latko, 16, Joseph Rotchford Jr., 16, and Carol McKee, 15. They all suffered cuts and bruises.
Latko and Rotchford said the group had left a Camden luncheonette for a pleasure ride shortly before the crash.
Hospital aides said some of the victims had burns, but could not say whether they were caused by the high-power lines or from the fire which followed the crash.
Autopsies were planned today to determine if the victims died from the crash or from electric shock.
Source of fire obscure
Camden Courier-Post —
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.
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!”
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.
Personnel Record
Edward F. Murtaugh Camden Fire Department personnel record card
Obituary
Camden Courier-Post —
MURTAUGH, EDWARD F.
age 59, died suddenly on November 22, 2006. Born in Camden, NJ on January 27, 1947, Ed was a resident of Westmont, NJ where he lived with his wife Colleen, and his stepson Thomas, for the past eight years.
Beloved son of the late John J. and Saimi E. (nee Perala) Murtaugh. Devoted brother of Susan DiFrank and her husband Robert, John Murtaugh and his wife Rebecca, Thomas Murtaugh and the late Mary Hall and Eileen Wise. Dear brother-in-law of David Wise. Also survived by numerous nephews and nieces.
Ed dedicated his life to serving and helping others. In 1966 he was inducted into the US Army where he served in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 with the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, the 9th Infantry Division, Bearcat, South Vietnam. After his service in Vietnam, Ed became a member of the Camden City Fire Dept. until his retirement in January, 2000, when he retired as Captain.
For the past 15 years Ed was a proud and dedicated member of the South Jersey Vietnam Veterans Assoc. where he served several years as Sgt. of Arms, and one year as President. His commitment to his fellow veterans was a source of inspiration to all who knew him in the veteran community. In October, 2005, Ed’s service to the veteran community was recognized by the Camden County Dept. Of Veterans Affairs by receiving the Camden County Veterans Special Recognition Award.
Relatives and friends are invited to visit with the family from 9 to 11am Wednesday morning at GARDNER FUNERAL HOME, RUNNEMEDE. Memorial Service 11am at the funeral home. Interment private at the request of the family. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to South Jersey Vietnam Veterans Assoc., 1868 Greentree Rd., Cherry Hill, NJ 08034.