Introduction
THOMAS C. BLAIR JR. was born in Camden to Edna and Thomas Blair on November 24, 1925. His parents had been living in Gloucester City in January of 1920. The 1924 Camden City Directory, the 1930 Census, and the 1947 Camden City Directory shows his father, Thomas C. Blair, a self-employed paperhanger, living at 1034 North 18th Street in Cramer Hill. This address would remain in the Blair family through the fall of 1969. When the Census was taken in April of 1930, the family included two sisters, Edna, and Dorothy Blair.
On February 2, 1944 Thomas C. Blair Jr. joined the United States Navy. He reached the rank of Aviation Ordnanceman Third Class before leaving the service.
Thomas Blair was living at 1918 Pierce Avenue in Cramer Hill when he was appointed to the Camden Fire Department on December 30, 1950 and reported for duty on January 1, 1951. He was, in time promoted to Captain and later, on December 20, 1969, to Battalion Chief. The 1969 and 1970 New Jersey Bell Telephone Directories shows an address of 467 North 34th Street for Thomas C. Blair Jr.
By 1977 residence restrictions had been lifted on Camden fire fighters. Chief Blair and his wife Doris moved to Atco, New Jersey.
Chief Blair retired on February 1, 1981, and in time settled at Bayonet Point, Florida. Last a resident of Hudson, Florida, he passed away on October 17, 2003. He was buried at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida.
Fire Rips E. Camden Home, Leaving 4 Youngsters Dead
Camden Courier-Post —
By Charles Johns and Joseph R. McCarthy, Courier-Post Staff
Four East Camden children were killed this morning in a 20-minute house fire that broke out after their mother went next door to make a quick phone call.
A fifth child, the oldest in the family, was not involved because he lives with his grandparents only a few blocks away in Pennsauken. Today is his 12th birthday.
Two of the victims were taken to West Jersey Hospital, Northern Division, Camden. They were identified as Anthony DePasquale, 8, and Jackie Binder, 3. Both were dead on arrival at 2:55 a.m.
The other two children were identified as John Spataro, 10, and Marlene Spataro, 9, by a spokesman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Camden. John was dead on arrival at 3:04 a.m.; Marlene died in the hospital at 3:40 a.m.
All the victims were the children of Mrs. Geraldine Binder of 433 Garden Ave., according to Thomas R. Daley, investigator for the Camden County Medical Examiner’s Office. Mrs. Binder, who worked as a waitress, had lived at the address with her children for the past five years.
“She (Mrs. Binder) was here 10 minutes,” said Gary Mason, who was visiting the other half of the Binder family’s duplex house, the home of Mrs. Anna Bier.
Mason said Mrs. Binder went to Mrs. Bier’s side of the house to call her mother, and that he was the first to smell smoke.
“Mrs. Binder went to the rear of the house, opened her door,” Mason said, “and the smoke just poured out.”
Mason, of 14 Stewart Ave., Camden, said he and another man at the Bier house, Paul Marioni, of Pennsauken, tried to enter Mrs. Binder’s house through the front and rear doors and also a bedroom window but were unsuccessful.
“We had one foot in the front room, but the smoke was too thick,” Mason said. The smoke forced Mrs. Bier and her three children to flee from their house.
Firemen found one of Mrs. Binder’s children on the floor of the front bedroom, near the door to the hall, Battalion Chief Thomas Blair said.
Smoke and flames were pouring out of the house when firemen arrived after the alarm was sounded at 2:30 a.m., Blair said, and the first floor living room was “totally involved.”
The other three children were found in two rear bedrooms, Blair said, each of which contained a double bunk bed. Blair said it appeared all four children died from smoke inhalation since they were found on the floor.
“One kid — Marlene — they got her breathing,” the chief said, “but eventually she died.”
Blair said the asbestos-sided house was extensively damaged and its furnishings destroyed. A firewall prevented anything more than smoke damage to Mrs. Bier’s side of the house.
Firemen extinguished the blaze in 20 minutes, Blair said.
The chief said the fire appeared to have started near the living room couch, and he speculated that the cause was either a defective lamp cord or extension cord.
Mrs. Binder’s surviving child, Danny Spataro, is a student at the Burling School in Pennsauken, and lives with his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Jack Wolfson, on Harris Avenue, where Mrs. Binder was reported to be staying today. The other children, with the exception of 3-year-old Jackie, were students at the McGraw School in Camden.
Autopsies were scheduled to be performed today by Camden County Medical Examiner Louis C. Riegert.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete but are being handled by Edward P. Leonard Jr., 35th Street and River Avenue.
Camden Division of Fire Personnel Record
Badge No: 55
Name in Full: Thomas C. Blair, Jr.
Address: 1918 Pierce [crossed out]; 3 Hillside Dr., Atco, N.J. [phone: 966-[?] 767-4636]
Age: 25 Citizen: Yes Color: " [ditto mark] Sex: M
Date of Birth: Nov. 24, 1925
Born in City of: Camden State: N.J.
Name of Parents: Thomas & Edna
Marital Conditions: [Doris — written in Widowed field]
Date of Appointment: Dec. 30, 1950 Reported for duty: Jan. 1, 1951
Title of Position: Fireman → Capt → Batt. Chief 12/30/69
High School Graduate: No [checked]
[bottom right] Pension 2-1-81
[additional address added later] 12212 Bear Creek Lane, Bayonet Point, Florida 34667, 813-862-0462