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Harold H. Pike

Camden Fire Marshal

Introduction

Portrait of Harold H. Pike in uniform

Harold H. Pike

HAROLD HADLEY PIKE JR. was born on March 22, 1926 to Harold H. Pike and his wife, the former Agnes Lynn. The 1926 and 1927 City Directories show the Pikes at 1302 Green Street in Camden. The 1928 Directory has them at 935 North 20th Street. The 1930 Census shows Harold H. Pike and his parents living at 1156 Marion Street with Agnes’ parents, Ross and Mary Lynn, and her brother, Robert T. Lynn.

Sadly, Harold H. Pike’s uncle, Robert T. Lynn, was killed in action in France on September 5, 1944.

After serving in the United States Navy, Harold Pike tested for the Camden Fire Department. He was appointed on November 15, 1950 and reported for duty the following day. After serving almost 10 years at Ladder Company 1, Harold H. Pike was promoted to Captain and sent to Engine Company 1. On May 30, 1964 he was promoted to District Chief. He was then living at 939 North 31st Street in Cramer Hill. When Camden removed residency restrictions for city employees, Harold H. Pike moved to Marlton, New Jersey.

Harold H. Pike served as District Chief with the Third Platoon until 1967 when he was transferred to the Fire Academy. In 1968 Harold H. Pike was promoted to Fire Marshall and made Chief of the Bureau of Fire Prevention. Harold H. Pike retired on pension on April 1, 1981.

Harold H. Pike moved to Winter Garden, Florida after retiring from the Camden Fire Department. He passed in Florida on September 14, 1998 and was buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Gotha, Florida.

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37 Camden Men Pass Tests for City Firemen

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post December 9, 1949 — 37 Camden Men Pass Tests for City Firemen

Thirty-seven candidates have passed the Civil Service test for fireman in the Camden City fire department. Thirty-two of those who qualified are former service men and three of them, disabled veterans, were placed at the top of the list under the preference given by law.

Joseph T. Hackett, of 158 Branch Village is listed first; Owen D. Gale, 320 Marlton avenue, second and August L. Johnson, 916½ Chestnut street, third. The salary on Jan. 1 will begin at $2400 and reach a maximum of $3150 after four years.

Following is the complete list of those who qualified in the test:

Joseph T. Hackett, 158 Branch Village; Owen D. Gale, 320 Marlton avenue; August L. Johnson, 916 Chestnut street; Harry Sterling, 112 Aleibt Village; Albert A. Stinger, 1123 Bradley avenue; Jesthroe Hunt, 753 Walnut street; Harold H. Pike, 429 Penn street; Roy R. Moffa, 216 Morse street; Allen F. Hess, 2733 Sherman avenue; Franklin W. Whylings, 602 North Thirty-Second street; William L. Gosnell, 3303 Crescent drive; David W. Humphries, 3017 Mickle street; William G. Winstanley, 510 Penn street; Joshua H. Robinson, 1934 Kossuth street; Henry S. Keubler, 336 Broadway; Adolph S. Zubrzycki, 1223 South Tenth street; Ralph H. Palmer, 585 Mickle street; Alexander P. Matis, 903 Haddon avenue; Earl G. Robinson, 1036 Penn street; Anthony J. DiMaggio, 530 South Eighth street; Earl A. Smith Sr., 201 Biederman avenue; Philip J. MacDonald, 123 North Eleventh street; Robert F. Olesiewicz, 921 Mt. Vernon street; Eugene E. Demers, 2034 High street; Chester J. Gedrich, 1154 Thurman street; John F. Chudzinski, 1043 Thurman street; Samuel D. Siniscalki, 803 Line street; Santo Dimaggio, 319 Beckett street; Ludwig S. Polniak, 471 Pfeiffer street; George P. Baxter, 817 Howard street; Ralph F. Schaeffer, 909 Berkley apartments; Joseph J. McTaggart, 3135 Waldorf avenue; Louis J. Monahan, Canterbury apartments; John DiMaggio, 319 Beckett street; William N. Stone Jr., 950 Vine street; Casper J. Martelli, 220 Mt. Vernon street; H. Raymond Dixon, 439 Trenton avenue.

Firemen Here Get Advanced First Aid Course

Camden Courier-Post

More than 40 members of the Camden Fire Department have completed the Red Cross course in advanced first aid according to announcement today by Howard F. Keller, Collingswood, chairman of the Camden County Chapter’s first aid committee.

Instruction sessions were under the direction of Fire Chief William V. Pfefferle, Drillmaster Anthony Dzinski, a member of the local chapter first aid group, assisted by Nicholas E. George, were instructors. Dzinski is a member of the Red Cross faculty at the National Aquatic School held in this area each year for instruction in advance safety techniques. Dick Harris, director of Red Cross safety services, supervised.

All members of the graduating class are personnel of several units housed at fire department headquarters here. These include the Headquarters Company, Engine Company 2, Rescue Squad 1 and truck company 1. these groups include:

Rescue Squad: Captains Arthur Batten, Philip A. Stinger and albert weller; Edward Brendlinger, harrison macneir, Robert Olesiewicz and james w. smith.

Headquarters Company: raymond banford, John K. Voll and john w. yates.

Truck Company 1: Captains Daniel Jiannetto, Robert E. Dukes and otto v. kaiser; William Watkin, chester gedrich, George Baxter, john mogck, George C. Hennessy, Charles Devlin, Ambrose W. Faust, joseph mctaggart, Howard R. Taggart, William G. Winstanley and elmer johnson jr.

Engine Company 2: Captains James R. Asher, thomas winstanley; Carl Wirtz, james mcgrory, Edwin V. Decker, james stewart, Francis X. McTaggart, anthony t. orme, Mario D. Fattore, james o. jones, Francis P. Stibi, william hopkins, Robert E. Briggs, John Giuliano, casper martelli, Harold H. Pike, john j. vane, William Stibi, john dimaggio and Harry Kleinfelder.

Fire Captain Is Promoted

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post April 30, 1964 — Fire Captain Is Promoted

Camden Fire Capt. Harold H. Pike today was promoted to district fire chief. He was sworn by City Clerk Odorisio at ceremonies in the City Hall office of Public Safety Director Kauffman.

Pike of Engine Co. 1, 4th and Pine sts., is 38 and lives at 939 N. 31st st. Appointed as a ladderman in November, 1950, he was made a captain in 1961. Kauffman, Fire Chief Edward R. MacDowell and acting Deputy Chief Edward Michalak witnessed the swearing-in ceremony.

Fire Death Of Woman Is Probed

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post November 29, 1971 — Fire Death Of Woman Is Probed

An investigation into the death of a 37-year-old Camden woman, found in her burning home Saturday evening, is being conducted by the Camden firemarshal and detective bureau.

An autopsy was scheduled today for Mrs. Elizabeth McLeish, 830 Woodland Ave. She was found by firemen, sitting at her kitchen table, burned to death.

Fire Marshal Harold Pike said he enlisted the aid of the detective bureau because he was unable to determine why Mrs. McLeish had been unable to escape the burning house.

Neighbors discovered the fire at 6:18 p.m., according to Pike. He said the flames had started in a cardboard box filled with trash in a rear shed of the two-story, single family house.

Pike said when firemen managed to get into the house, there was intense heat that slowed their progress.

Mrs. McLeish was alone in the house at the time of the fire, according to Pike. Her mother, Mrs. Janice Smalls, and two small children live in the same house but were not home, he said.

The entire first floor of the house was destroyed, Pike said.

Camden County medical investigator Joseph Bocco ordered the body removed to the morgue for the autopsy.

5 Juveniles Arrested in Plant Blaze

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post December 20, 1971 — 5 Juveniles Arrested in Plant Blaze

Five North Camden boys are in the Camden County Children’s Shelter at Lakeland following their arrests yesterday in connection with Sunday’s general-alarm fire at a vacant leather tanning plant at Second and Erie Streets.

The boys, between the ages of 11 and 14, all live in the vicinity of the waterfront plant, police said.

Three of the juveniles are charged with malicious burning; two, with trespassing.

Face Judge Malandra

They will be arraigned before Camden County Juvenile Court Judge Angelo D. Malandra.

Camden Police Lt. John Giletto, head of the juvenile division, said the boys told police they and other juveniles had been using the former John R. Evans Co. plant as a clubhouse.

They said they panicked and fled when a fire they started in the building Sunday got out of control, Giletto said.

Camden Courier-Post December 20, 1971 — continued — loss possibly $200,000

The building’s owner, Thomas Greiff, president of Greiff Trucking Co. of Brooklyn, N.Y., placed his loss at between $100,000 and $200,000, according to City Fire Marshal Harold Pike.

Greiff said there was no insurance on the building, Pike said.

Fireman Thomas DiBiaso, 38, who was injured fighting the blaze, was in fair condition in Cooper Hospital.

Camden Bank, Business Bldg. Targets of Two Firebombings

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post December 22, 1971 — Camden Bank, Business Bldg. Targets of Two Firebombings

Volkswagen Impounded By Police

By Joseph R. McCarthy and Douglas Campbell, Courier-Post Staff

There was a loud bang from the back room of the Third National Bank of New Jersey, Camden at 7:34 a.m. today, just after Miss Sara Matthews, head bookkeeper, had left and shut the door.

When she rushed back into the room, a walk-up window teller’s booth, she saw flames leaping at the window.

“We panicked,” admitted Miss Matthews who, with Mrs. Ellen Egbert, head teller, had been in the bank at 27th and Federal Streets 10 or 15 minutes.

The fire was the result of one of two firebombings perpetrated today within 16 minutes and three miles of each other. The first bombing was at 333 Arch St., Camden, a building housing several businesses and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Labor Department office.

Car Impounded

Police impounded a red Volkswagen following the bombings. They said the car fits a description given by witnesses at both scenes of a car seen speeding from the bombings. Police were questioning several men about the incidents, according to Det. Capt. Donald McGlensey.

According to Harold Pike, city fire marshal, there was little damage at the Arch Street bombing, committed at 7:18 a.m. He said there were no persons in the office building. Witnesses told firemen they saw a red Volkswagen speeding from the scene following the explosion of the bomb at the front of the building, he said.

Fireman George Merriweather, on his way to work at No. 9 Engine Co., 27th and Federal Streets, saw smoke coming from the bank, across the street from the station, and alerted his fellow firemen. By the time firemen arrived at the bank, however, the fire was out.

$500 Damage

Acting battalion chief Harry Scholz said witnesses told him they saw a man driving a red Volkswagen toss a bottle against the building. The bottle struck the outdoor walk-up window and then exploded, he said, causing about $500 damage to the cage.

About ten minutes after the bank bombing, police, alerted to the description of the car, impounded a red Volkswagen at Dudley and Federal Streets, six blocks from the bank.

According to Miss Matthews, she didn’t attempt to extinguish the fire, on the Westfield Avenue side of the bank. Instead,

Scattered glass and ripped blinds at 333 Arch Street, Camden, site of first firebombing

SCATTERED GLASS and ripped blinds are evidence of first of two firebombings in Camden today. This bombing was at 333 Arch St., home of several businesses. There were no injuries.

Water and soot damage in office of Puerto Rican Labor Department at 333 Arch Street, Camden

WATER and soot damage are evident in office of Puerto Rican Labor Department office at 333 Arch St., Camden, site of firebombing earlier today.

Continued — Firebombs Hit Two Buildings

she and Mrs. Egbert decided to run to the fire department across the street. However, firemen were already on the way.

No Injury

Miss Matthews said she saw no one when she looked into the burning tellers cage. Neither she nor Mrs. Egbert was injured.

Robert Harrison, a bank vice president, said a few items near the window were burned. He noted the teller’s cage is usually open from 3 to 6 p.m.

Fire marshal Pike said he had assigned men to investigate at both bombing sites. It was unknown if police had a suspect in the bombings.

Soot marks the spot where firebomb struck the Third National Bank of New Jersey in Camden

SOOT marks the spot where firebomb struck the Third National Bank of New Jersey in Camden today. The bombing was the second of two in the city within 16 minutes and three miles.

Cigarettes or heater sparked fire

Trenton Evening Times

Trenton Evening Times November 24, 1977 — Cigarettes or heater sparked fire

CAMDEN (AP) — A fire that killed five residents of an unlicensed boarding home for the elderly was started by a cigarette or a portable heater, authorities say.

The Wednesday morning fire, which started on the front porch, trapped the five residents in their beds. Hospital officials said the victims died of smoke inhalation.

Fire Marshal Harold Pike said the 2½-story frame structure lacked a fire escape, smoke alarm and sprinkler system. But under the local fire code the devices only are required on buildings three stories or taller, he said.

State health department records revealed the building’s owner, Mrs. Elizabeth Coleman, was ordered to close the boarding home in 1974 because it was unlicensed and didn’t have an adequate fire alarm system.

A spokesman for the department said Mrs. Coleman also owns an old-age home adjacent to the destroyed structure. He said a state inspection in April discovered 27 violations at the old-age home, including a jammed fire door, occupancy by more than 10 persons permitted by the license, deficiencies in care and failure to submit proof of electrical inspection.

Authorities identified the fire victims as William Godwin, 56; William Robinson, 74; Margaret Quillan, 63; and Aida Folks and Beatrice Taylor, for whom no ages were given.

A sixth resident of the home, Walter Gatter, 80, jumped from a second floor window. He was hospitalized in stable condition.

Bar patrons mourn murdered buddies

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post September 27, 1979 — Bar patrons mourn murdered buddies

By CAROL COMEGNO
Of the Courier-Post

CAMDEN — Regulars at The Tavern are still stopping by as always, but it hasn’t been business as usual the past few days.

The atmosphere at the North Sixth Street bar has been more subdued since Saturday, when many of the patrons learned that two long-time members of their drinking family had been murdered.

The patrons and tavern owner are so grieved and outraged over the loss of their beloved buddies — Benjamin Shablack and John Barrett — that they are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits who bound and gagged the two retired roommates, set fire to their house in North Camden and left them to die.

Barrett, 66, was a retired city employee with the public works department who once was in charge of the now-defunct State Street dump. Shablack, 69, a former printer in Philadelphia, worked as a cleanup man at the tavern.

SINCE MONDAY, patrons at The Tavern — one of the last drinking spots where city oldtimers gather — have been putting dollar bills and change into a can covered with a sign reading, “For Benny and Eggy.”

“They were the most unforgettable characters. They were loved people, they were our friends, and we just don’t want this to get lost somewhere,” said Anthony Gresk, a former city policeman who owns The Tavern.

“Eggy (Barrett’s nickname) fought in Africa (in World War II) and was injured. In his life, he’s been through a lot — as has Bennie — and they didn’t deserve to die like that,” said Gresk, who later told some of Eggy’s more memorable jokes and imitated some of the mannerisms of his two favorite customers.

Former state Sen. Joseph Cowgill, another of the regular patrons, was helping Gresk count some of the proceeds Tuesday afternoon. One contributor dropped his day’s pay into the till; some customers parted with $50 bills for their slain comrades.

Friends described the pair as kind-hearted, street-wise men who were creatures of habit and who had been touched by crime before.

“THEY STILL wanted to live in North Camden even though it’s a really rough neighborhood now. Their hearts were there because they were raised there and had lived there all their lives,” said Rocky Donovan of Camden. “When I got a phone call about their deaths, it was like they were telling me one of my own family had died. We’re going to miss those guys.”

While police suspect the motive for the murders was robbery, policemen and friends of the dead men said the two had very little money.

“Whoever did this thought those guys had money, but they had nothin’. They got their Social Security checks the third of the month and also had small pensions. Bennie kept his money in a Bull Durham tobacco bag that was tied to a string around his neck and inside his shirt,” Donovan recalled.

Barrett once was known to bet on the horses and carry large sums of money, but city police and friends agreed this was no longer the case.

“The only gambling he did was going on errands for City Hall or tavern friends to buy them daily lottery tickets,” said another of his acquaintances.

A bartender at the grill said he gave Shablack $5 Friday morning because he was broke.

Christine Patterson of Woodlynne, Barrett’s niece, said her uncle had great family pride but was a loner.

“WHEN I’D see him, he would say he had been beaten or robbed at least once a year, but he seemed to laugh it off,” she said. “He had a great disposition and always wore a white shirt, hat and tie no matter where he went.”

Camden Detective Lt. Edward Michalak said Barrett was last seen leaving The Tavern about 8 p.m. Friday and that Shablack had gone home before dark, as was his habit.

The two were found in their underwear at 2 a.m. Saturday after police and firemen responded to a fire call at their two-story brick rowhouse at 834 Bailey St. in a predominantly Hispanic and black neighborhood. The houses on either side of their home are vacant.

Michalak said four city policemen and three investigators from the Camden County prosecutor’s office are working on the case and have interviewed more than 100 friends, relatives and neighbors, and street people.

“There are no new developments and we have no suspects at this point,” said Michalak. “We have not found any wallets and have not been able to establish if anything was taken.”

City Fire Marshal Harold Pike released a report Tuesday that concluded the fire was deliberately set in four locations inside the house — a first-floor closet in the front room and closets and a mattress in two of the three upstairs bedrooms. One of the bedrooms was ransacked, leading police to believe the initial motive was robbery.

PIKE SAID firemen found no sign of forced entry and did not find traces of flammable liquids, which often are used to set fires. “It appears that clothes in the closets and the mattress were set afire with a lighter or something else that could have been easily lit,” Pike said.

Autopsies showed both men died from smoke inhalation and that Barrett had bruises and was bleeding from the head because of a beating. Police, however, said the beating did not appear to be severe.

Shablack and Barrett were buried today.

Source of fire obscure

Camden Courier-Post

Camden Courier-Post December 2, 1980 — Source of fire obscure — firefighters at Erie Street fire

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.

Camden Courier-Post December 2, 1980 — continued — Cause of intense row house fire still unknown

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.

4 children killed, 2 other persons injured in Camden fire

Philadelphia Inquirer

Philadelphia Inquirer December 2, 1980 — 4 children killed, 2 other persons injured in Camden fire

By Jack Severson
Inquirer Staff Writer

CAMDEN — Four children were killed and two persons were injured early yesterday when a fire swept through a brick rowhouse in a low-income neighborhood here just north of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

The two-alarm fire at 328 Erie St. broke out shortly before 6 a.m., killing Tanya Adams, 11, and her three brothers, Andre, 10, Steven, 9, and Tyhe, 8.

The children’s mother, Merel Hall, 27, and her husband, Robert Hall, 21, escaped the blaze by crawling out a second-floor bedroom window onto the roof of the front porch. Hall fell from the roof, sustaining a broken wrist and ankle. Both were admitted to Cooper Medical Center for treatment of smoke inhalation and other injuries.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Mrs. Hall’s brother, Leroy Adams, attempted to rescue the children, but was thwarted by smoke and flames.

Firefighters found the bodies of Tanya, Steven and Tyhe in the middle bedroom on the second floor. Andre’s body was found near the only window in the rear bedroom of the three-bedroom home.

“I heard a scream and I peeped out the window and I saw them on the roof,” Adams, 32, who lives across the street from the Hall house, said yesterday.

“I ran downstairs and across the street and went up the pole (a column supporting the porch roof) and onto the roof. Merel said the kids were inside, so I went in the window — inside the front bedroom. I couldn’t go no further because of the smoke; I couldn’t breathe. So I went back outside and got a breath and tried to go back in.

“But when I tried to go back the second time, the flames broke through the bedroom door,” he said.

By that time, according to neighbors, firefighters had arrived at the scene and were hosing down the front of the building, one of 12 homes in a block-long row anchored at each end by boarded-up houses.

“I got here about 6:30, and there were three guys here with fire hoses,” said Elmer Chandler, 27, Mrs. Hall’s brother-in-law. Chandler, of East Camden, had been alerted by a phone call from the home of Mrs. Hall’s mother, Hallie Adams, 50, who also lives across the street from her daughter.

“Leroy was on the roof, and he was yelling, ‘There are kids in there!’” Chandler said. “The firemen said, ‘Kids in there? We didn’t know that.’”

At that point, according to neighbors and other witnesses, the front of the house, including the porch roof, was nearly engulfed in flames and entry was impossible.

Firefighters were able to confine the blaze to the Hall home. The two houses adjacent to it sustained only minor damage, and there were no injuries to the occupants.

The fire was first reported by a telephone call from a neighbor “at about 6 a.m.,” according to fire officials. The first alarm was sounded at 6:16, followed by a second alarm at 6:23. The fire was declared under control at 6:45.

As neighbors and relatives milled about the street outside the Hall home yesterday afternoon, investigators from the Camden fire marshal’s office and the arson unit of the Camden County prosecutor’s office sifted through the building’s charred interior, searching for clues to the cause of the blaze.

“The place was pretty well gutted,” Fire Marshal Harold H. Pike said. “It’s going to be tough (finding the cause), but we’re just going to keep digging.”

Across the street, family members gathered on the front porch of Hallie Adams’ house, awaiting her return from Cooper Medical Center, where she had been treated for what a hospital spokesman called “anxiety” and released. Also treated was Mrs. Adams’ daughter, Monica, 17, who sustained smoke inhalation.

“It must have happened awfully fast,” said Carl Adams, 32, another brother of Mrs. Hall, who had been called to the scene from his home in Chester.

“Those kids were sensitive to fire,” he said, staring into the black cavity that was once a living room. “They knew about fire. It must have burned awfully quick for them not to get out.”

Personnel Card

Camden Fire Department Personnel Card for Harold H. Pike

Camden Fire Department personnel card for Harold H. Pike.

Grave Marker

Grave marker for Harold H. Pike, US Navy, 1926–1998, at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Gotha, Florida

Named: Harold H. Pike, US Navy, 1926, 1998, and Woodlawn Memorial Park, Gotha, Florida.

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