Michael P. Waters Sr.
Michael P. “Hopper” Waters Sr.
MICHAEL P. “HOPPER” WATERS SR. was born on July 23, 1958 to Howard Vincent Waters and his wife, the former Dorothy Jean McGuire. He was one of six children. The Waters family had bought the home at 2976 Congress Road in the Fairview section of Camden in 1947 and they were still living at that address as late as 1997, despite Howard Waters passing in 1966 and Dorothy’s in 1970.
Michael Waters was appointed to the Camden Fire Department on May 9, 1994. He served for 23 years, many of them with Ladder Company 2, before respiratory problems forced an early retirement in 2014.
Michael Waters was last a resident of Audubon, New Jersey. He died on June 1, 2018, survived by his wife, Jean, and five children.
Gloucester City Fire Survivors, Rescuers Share Tales of Heroism and Tragedy
Camden Courier-Post —
Black bubbles oozed out of Katia Williamson’s mouth as Camden firefighter Jeff Money found her on the kitchen floor, with smoke filling the room and a roaring fire in the duplex apartment next door.
She had suffered severe internal damage from smoke inhalation in the July 4 Gloucester City fire that killed her three young daughters. Williamson was incoherent, Money said. But as horrible as the scene was, it also gave firefighters temporary hope.
They found the mother, and they figured maybe her girls were in the same house, and they could all be saved.
They didn’t know Williamson had followed her boyfriend, Frank Slack, across the porch roof from the other side of the duplex, where the girls were left behind in a second-floor bedroom.
Haddon Heights teenager organizes fund-raiser. 1B
By the time they arrived on the scene, Camden firefighter Angelo DeCaro said Thursday night, “there was fire blowing out of every window” where Slack, Williamson and the three girls lived. “There was no way anyone was alive in there.”
So a crew of firefighters entered the house next door. They found Williamson and carried her to safety.
And then the roof fell in. Two floors collapsed. Flames and debris fell on the firefighters.
As the night wore on, hope of saving the girls faded, and the mission be— (article continues on a page not in the local archive)
DeCaro said the men dug a tunnel. As the flames burned on top of the debris, the men picked their way through the murky, smelly debris — a smell like fresh tar on an asphalt roof, he said.
The work was painstakingly slow. Using their hands and every tool they could find, they built a dark and smoky subway tunnel, propped open with pieces of wood and air bags.
Saws cut through the biggest pieces of wood.
Then — wait! There was a sound! DeCaro ordered the saws to be quiet. They were getting close to the men trapped in the front of the building.
DeCaro said he worried that the whole pile of debris would cause the floor to cave in.
The three Mount Ephraim firefighters trapped inside the front of the building — Bill Bates, 21; Mark Campanell, 19, and Harry Smith, 31 — said they struggled for breath and to maintain consciousness. The men were lucky. A sofa and TV created a small, damp cave around them, holding up the debris and saving their lives.
Money was first in the tunnel, digging toward Smith. The two men talked about their young children.
For Smith, it was his first fire in a building.
Money was a rookie too, having been a firefighter for only 11 months.
“He was telling me his life story,” Money said. “That was all right.”
“It seemed like I was breathing for him. Every time he stopped breathing, it seemed like I stopped breathing, too,” Money said. “Harry was going in and out of consciousness. … I started flipping out.”
Overcome, Money was pulled from the tunnel, and his friend and fellow Camden firefighter Dwayne Dixon, 27, finished the job. “There was a chair, and a little end table,” Dixon said, that gave Smith shelter. “His head was under the end table. … I kept yelling at him: ‘Harry! Wake up, Harry! You’re going home!’”
As about a dozen of the rescuers gathered Thursday night for the first time with the men they had rescued, there were lots of smiles and hugs.
Gloucester City firefighter Bobby Williams was the only rescued firefighter who did not attend the event. Camden Capt. Warren Everett remembered that Williams had been about five steps behind firefighter John D. West, who was killed.
When the building collapsed, Williams was pushed off a staircase and through a banister. He was completely covered in wreckage from the fire.
Firefighters found him when they saw his hand waving from the middle of a mountain of debris, Everett said.
Campanell, Bates and Smith were found in the front of the building. As the Courier-Post reported Sunday, the men stayed conscious by singing show tunes, but rescuer DeCaro had a different take on their singing Thursday night.
As they broke into the song “I Will Survive,” DeCaro said, he yelled at them: “You’re gonna survive! Now shut up and save your … air!”
Campanell was kidded about his heft.
He fell on top of Bates, and there was a lot of laughter about where Campanell’s head landed.
“It was the torso — the upper torso!” Bates said.
But no matter how much the men laughed Thursday night, they couldn’t get away from the fact that three others had died. Most of the men reported they’ve had dreams and nightmares about the fire.
Money worried that his dreams were of fires yet to come.
“I don’t want you to think we celebrated when we got these guys out,” said Camden firefighter Patrick McGinley, 30.
Mount Ephraim firefighter Anthony Stagliano, 41, said he saw the emblem from the helmet of his fire chief, James Sylvester, who died in the blaze with West and Gloucester City firefighter Thomas G. Stewart III.
He saw the emblem, and he thought of Sylvester’s family.
“I saw that,” he said, “and I knew there was no way he was making it out.”
Michael P. “Hopper” Waters, Sr.
Camden Courier-Post —
Audubon — On June 1, 2018. Age 59. Formerly of Fairview. Loving husband of Jean Waters (nee Smith). Loving father of Kelly Waters, Michael P. Waters, Jr., Ashley Paradiso, Nicholas Paradiso and Courtney DiPaolo. Cherished grandfather of Keira and Tyler “Buddy” Epley. Son of the late Howard and Dorothy Waters. Beloved brother of the late Howard Waters (surv. Vonnie), Carol Ann Marshall (Dave), Dorothy Rouh, Thomas Waters (Lydia) and Patricia Smith (George). Also survived by 22 nieces and nephews.
Hopper was a graduate of Camden County VoTech in Pennsauken and was a retired Camden City Firefighter from Ladder 2 after 24 years of service.
Relatives, friends and current and retired Camden City Firefighters are invited to his viewing on Thursday, June 7th from 9 to 11 AM at the McCANN-HEALEY FUNERAL HOME, 851 Monmouth St., Gloucester City. Mass of Christian Burial 11:30 AM at St. Mary’s Church, Gloucester City. Interment will be private.