Raging House Fire Kills Baby
Camden Courier-Post —
12 residents left homeless after city blaze
By SEAN McKINNEY, Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN — The woman ran from the back door of her burning house, tightly clutching her 3-year-old child and screaming “please save my baby,” as 14-month-old Shontaye Johns was still inside.
Neighbors tried to run into the flames to rescue the trapped child but were turned back by the smoke. They finally succeeded in ducking into the house for a bucket of water.
But then it was too late. Fire officials believe that a faulty electrical space heater swept through the house and burned the entire structure to the ground, killing 14-month-old Shontaye Johns.
The fire also injured the mother’s 3-year-old child and left 12 people from three nearby houses homeless.
The body of the baby was found in the ruins of a couch in the back bedroom of 108 N. 25th Street, fire officials said. An autopsy was to be conducted.
Several neighbors tried to save the baby but there was too much smoke. Edwin Hoffman, 47, the neighbor at 102 N. 25th Street, told police that Annette Andino, who lives at 108 with her children, was in the living room with Shontaye and her three-year-old child when the fire started.
The fire was ignited by a space heater placed 3 feet from the couch on the second floor. The whole house went up.
When she was being taken from the house, 3-year-old Sierra Johns suffered second-degree burns on her feet from the fire. The child was treated and released at Cooper Hospital University Medical Center.
Among the displaced residents was 71-year-old Marybell Collazo of 102 N. 25th Street. Also displaced were Maria Maldonado and her daughter Marisol Maldonado.
FATAL BLAZE: A firefighter pours water on a blazing frame home in the 100 block of North 25th Street in East Camden in which a child died yesterday despite rescue attempts by neighbors. Twelve residents of three nearby houses were left homeless.