Two Camden Toddlers Die As Fire Razes Row House
Camden Courier-Post —
Babysitter Seriously Burned
—Courier-Post Photo by Bob Bartosz
BODY of child, one of two young victims of Camden blaze, is carried from Fern Street row house by Capt. Al Collum of Engine Company 1.
By BOB REICHENBACH, Courier-Post Staff
A Camden man was in critical condition at Cooper Hospital today and two children were dead after a fire swept through a North Camden row house yesterday.
Stanley Brown, 25, was burned over 50 per cent of his body in the blaze at 825 Fern St. that took the lives of James Lyles, 3, and his brother John M., 2.
The two boys, sons of Mrs. Inez Brown, 22, died of burns over their entire bodies, according to an autopsy report released today by Blair M. Murphy, investigator for the Camden County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Flames Spread Rapidly
The first alarm was called at 1:40 p.m. Six minutes later a second alarm was issued as heavy winds whipped flames and the blaze spread throughout the small two-bedroom row home.
The fire apparently started in the kitchen in the rear of the home, a preliminary investigation has turned up.
“The gas stove was lit,” Deputy Chief Theodore Primas explained, “just to help take the chill away.”
According to Brown’s hospital bedside testimony, the children were playing in the house.
“The kids were running around,” Primas said, “and there most probably is a link between the stove and the children.”
Brown, he continued, was asleep in one of the second-story bedrooms when the fire started.
A member of the family said Brown had been babysitting for the boys while their mother went shopping. A sister, Dorothy, 4, was visiting a grandmother. The children’s father is stationed in Kansas City, Mo., with the Army.
Leaps To Safety
According to reports, Brown jumped from the second floor window and told firemen that the two boys were trapped inside.
Firemen were unable to get into the house until about half an hour later when the flames subsided.
A fireman, Robert Troutman, 40, of Engine Company 6, was injured when he was blown from the front door he was trying to enter, according to other firemen.
He was treated at Cooper Hospital for smoke inhalation.
Troutman had been called to a one-alarm fire a block away, at 531 N. 9th St. Shortly after that fire was under control, firemen were ordered to the Fern Street address.
Firemen said Troutman and Capt. James McGrory, 44, of Engine two, tried to enter the home when they arrived. An explosion of undetermined origin apparently sent them flying to the sidewalk.
High winds threatened two adjoining homes as flames and smoke spread along the roof eves. Firemen cut through the ceilings of all three homes to combat fire spreading through the roof crawlspace.
Firemen found the two children in the bathroom at about 2:15.
“There was a big one and a smaller one,” said Primas, “but I don’t know which was which, they were both burned beyond recognition.”
The two-alarm fire followed within almost 15 minutes of a one alarm fire that Battalion Chief John Mogck said was “deliberately set in the kitchen.”
Spring winds again fanned the flames and the vacant rowhouse on N. 9th Street was “completely engulfed” when firemen arrived.
Mogck said an investigation of the 9th Street blaze will definitely be made.
Family Mourns 2 Boys
Children’s Grandmother Inconsolable
Mrs. Doris Brown sat weeping on the sofa in a home across the street following the two-alarm fire that took the lives of her two young grandchildren.
The family there was trying to keep people away from the distraught grandmother but they failed.
Neighbors and friends were crowding around. They wanted to find out what had happened. “I really don’t know,” she said, rubbing her surviving granddaughter’s head.
Looking at Girl
“She . . .” Mrs. Brown said, looking at the little girl, “was over here when it started.”
Dorothy, 4, looked up at her grandmother. She was confused.
But she seemed to know she should be quiet.
“My daughter was uptown shopping,” Mrs. Brown said between sobs, “and her friend (Stanley Brown) was watching the kids.”
The mother of the two small boys, Mrs. Inez Brown, 22, was shopping at Broadway and Kaighns Avenue, according to Blair M. Murphy, Camden County Medical Investigator.
Mrs. Brown cried more, probably thinking about how she would break the news to her daughter.
‘Where’s Father?’
“Where’s the father?” someone asked.
Mrs. Brown looked up from her crumpled handkerchief and said, “He’s in Kansas City (Mo.) with the Army.”
She looked at Dorothy again. “She was visiting me (at 531 Elm St.) and then said she was going home,” the grandmother said.
She sighed. “She must have come here instead,” she continued.
Mrs. Brown began crying harder. A neighbor tried to comfort her. Those crowding around began to leave. On their way out, they saw two small bodies wrapped in white sheets being lowered from the bedroom window across the street. Attendants carried the covered bodies to waiting ambulances.
Crowd Falls Short In McIntire March
By LARRY WILLIAMS, Courier-Post Staff
WASHINGTON — Fewer than 15,000 pro-Vietnam war demonstrators were on hand as Dr. Carl McIntire’s “march for victory” started down Pennsylvania Avenue today.
McIntire said during the prayer meeting that he was “heartened” by the number of persons who attended the hour-long session, despite earlier
16 Coal Miners Killed in Blast
VIENNA (UPI)—At least 16 coal miners died early today when an explosion rocked a mine in northeastern Czechoslovakia, the government announced.
The government announcement said two other miners have been saved and 10 “are being rescued.”
The announcement by the official news agency CTK said 28 men were in the Paskov mine, near the city of Ostrava, when the explosion occurred. The blast occurred just before the changeover from the night to day shifts.
7 Area Policemen Finish Drug Course
Seven South Jersey police officers were recent graduates of the twelfth class in a special drug law enforcement training program for municipal officers, conducted at the State Police Academy, Sea Girt.
They were Ptl. William Sheffield, Collingswood; Capt. Joseph Foster, Pitman; Ptl. Anthony Francesco, Edgewater Park; Det. James Dooley, Atlantic City; Sgt. Charles Rankin, Margate; Ptl. Walter Oliver, Middle Township, and Sgt. Dominic Romeo, Wildwood.