Camden Fire Department - The Fire of the Summer of 2011

After budget cuts brought on in great part by poor leadership at the state level from both political parties under Governors Whitman, McGreevey, Codey, and Corzine the City of Camden laid of a large number of its professional fire department at the end of 2010. Former Chief David A. Yates had offered three plans on how to cope with the situation, all were rejected by parties at Camden's City Hall, and a plan for the Fire Department, which to date I have not been able to find out who authored, was handed back to the Chief. Chief Yates subsequently chose to retire, and Chief Michael Harper was appointed as his replacement. Chief Harper inherited a no-win situation, and the losses began almost immediately. With Fire companies closed in different parts of the city, response times to fire calls increased, homes that could have been saved were destroyed, and civilians injured.

On June 6, 2011 a vacant two-story twin at 821-823 of Chestnut Street was destroyed by fire. Three days later, on June 9, fire broke out in the abandoned warehouse on Chestnut Street that formerly housed the Reliable Tire Company. When the few available local units arrived on the scene, hydrants were found to have been vandalized, delaying efforts to extinguish the blaze, which soon went to 12 alarms. Units were called in from surrounding communities, obviously taking a great deal of time to arrive on scene. In the mean time, high winds caused the fire to spread to adjacent buildings that formerly were occupied by the Camden Pottery Company, and homes on Orchard, Louis, and Mount Vernon Streets. Ten occupied homes were completely destroyed, as were all the industrial buildings, and thirteen other homes on Chestnut Street were badly damaged by smoke and water. Conditions and results of this blaze mimicked in almost every way the Poet's Row fire of August, 1972 where a vacant leather factory once occupied by the John R. Evans & Company caught fire and two and one-half full city blocks of homes on Byron, Burns, and Milton Streets were completely and utterly destroyed.... a deadly combination of an old and abandoned industrial building, short-staffed fire department, low water pressure and high winds being among the contributing factors.

In the early morning hours of June 11, 2011 another abandoned industrial building was reported to be on fire. The former Howland Croft, Sons & Company mill on Broadway between Winslow and Jefferson Streets was devastated by a blaze that went to eight alarms. One house at the corner of South 4th and Winslow and three homes on Winslow Street were damaged by smoke and water, but fortunately, none were destroyed.

Rumors of arson were flying through the city when, on Tuesday, June 14 a vacant twin at 107 North 34th Street was gutted, with the adjacent home taking a great deal of smoke and water damage.

On June 19, ANOTHER vacant industrial building went up in flames. The building in the 1600 block of Federal Street, originally a soap works and in more recent times a facility belonging to Concord Chemical, went up in flames. This fire was confirmed as an arson a few days later.

In the meantime, calls for fire service great and small continued. A vacant industrial building in the 1000 block of Empire Avenue saw fire a few days after the Concord Chemical blaze, and a small fire was knocked down in the vacant building at Davis and Copewood Streets, the original home of the Coriell Institute, now located on Haddon Avenue.

On June 25, 1018 a fire at Kenwood Avenue required an all-hands response around midnight. On June 27th a fire was extinguished at 925 and 927 North 3rd Street in North Camden.

Fires and incidents in the month of July and August are covered below.

With a number of people photographing and video recording these events and their aftermath, including newspaper photographers, Camden Fire Department personnel, freelance photo journalists Dave Hernandez and Ted Aurig, and civilians Joel D. Bain, Dom Patricelli and myself, combined with the unlimited space afforded by the Internet as opposed to the limited page space available in print, these events are documented here as completely as possible and practical. The assistance provided by the Camden Fire Department and Fire Dispatcher Matt DeGailler as to times and units operating in these incidents must also be recognized.

Hopefully, this rash of fires has ended and there will be little else to post concerning fire in the City of Camden during the summer of 2011. Please pray for our city, its people, and those brave men and women of the CFD and surrounding departments, as well as police and EMT personnel, who take care of these and other situations that civilians do not wish and would not be able to respond to.

As with the web page covering other Camden Fire Department events, if you can identify anyone that I've missed, please e-mail me. (I'm terrible at at names and faces).

Phil Cohen
July 8, 2011

In the early morning hours of July 2, 2011 a fire was extinguished at 1304 Sheridan Street, and as it was being wrapped up, the corner store at 876 Fairview Street went up in flames, with adjoining homes being damaged by smoke and water. On June 27th a fire was extinguished at 925 and 927 North 3rd Street in North Camden.

Another vacant industrial building fell on the night of July 5, 2011 when the former home of the Clement Coverall Company at 615 Van Hook Street was destroyed by fire. The building, which dated back to at least 1896, had been designated a hazardous site by the EPA, Clement Coverall having been in the manufacture of varnishes and coatings for over 80 years at that location. The fire went to two alarms, with units from Gloucester City, Oaklyn, and Collingswood rendering assistance to Camden's Fire Department.

At 1:55 AM on the morning of July 5, 2011 units of the Camden Fire Department extinguished a fire at the River Link Ferry pier at Wiggins Park. Ron Trout from www.phillyfirenews.com reported the following:

B/C 1 reported he had fire on the River Link Ferry Pier with extension to the actual ferry. Engine 6 went in service with the deck gun as Squad 7 and the rest of Engine 6's crew stretched 2.5 inch hand lines. S/C PFD Marine Unit 1. Command reported the fire was contained to the pier with minimal extension to the ferry

For more coverage of this incident, click here.

At 5:55 PM on July 7, 2011 a house fire was reported at 2930 Kansas Road in the Fairview section of Camden. Responding companies arrived in the middle of a brief but sever thunderstorm. Ted Aurig from www.phillyfirenews.com reported that Camden Fire Department's Engine Company 10 "arrived with fire showing from the 2nd floor of a 2 story E/O/R dwelling. 2 hand lines placed in operation. Searches negative." For more coverage of this fire, click here.

Around 12:00 noon on June 8, 2011 a kitchen fire was reported in Apartment 403 of the senior citizens apartment building located at 3195 Westfield Avenue. Ladder Company 3, Engine Company 11, and other units quickly arrived on scene and extinguished the blaze. For the next seven days, the Camden Fire Department responded to numerous calls for service regarding automobile accidents, fire alarms going off, people being stuck in elevators, and, of course, small fires. On July 13th units responded to a report of a fire at South 28th and Mickle Street, an unattended backyard fire pit that was throwing a lot of smoke, fortunately the homeowner extinguished it by the time CFD personnel arrived. On the 14th of July Engine Companies 11 and 9, along with Ladder Company 3 responded to an alarm at Veterans Memorial Middle School in Cramer Hill which turned out of be of no consequence.

The following day, however, the Department dodged a bullet. A fire was set in the abandoned paper warehouse at South 16th and Admiral Wilson Boulevard in East Camden. Units including Engine Company 9, Ladder Companies 1 and 3, Rescue Company 1 and Battalion 2 quickly arrived on scene and the blaze was knocked down in less than fifteen minutes. This building is filled with bales of paper, used pallets, and other debris and dust, and owing to the quick and efficient response by the CFD, another disaster was averted. For how long, however, is anyone's guess.

As a heat wave rolled into the Delaware Valley, the epidemic of fires cooled off. For the balance of July, things were relatively quiet. This ended on July 29th when arsonists put a building that had formerly housed a nail salon at 950 Haddon Avenue to the torch. The unoccupied building was completely gutted. Firefighters had the blaze and 90-plus degree temperatures to contend with, and one firefighter, Dom Barrett, was treated at Cooper Hospital for heat-related issues.

Later that night there was a fire at 27 South 36th Street, and in the early morning hours of June 30th, a fire in a vacant one-story warehouse went to three alarms after being brought under control. Later that morning Engine 10 responded to a call concerning a car on fire in a vacant lot on South 6th Street below Ferry Avenue and extinguished the blaze in short order.

July ended with a building collapse at 820 South 5th Street, the northeast corner of South 5th and Division Streets. A former commercial property, this building had been the scene of a fire-related fatality years before. The rear of the building collapsed, sending bricks into Division Street. Camden Fire Department units responded, and Rescue Company 1 personnel conducted a search, determining that no one had been trapped beneath the rubble.

Although I commented above that things had been relatively quiet in the latter half of July, this only applied to fires. The understaffed Camden Fire Department on a daily basis was responding to all sorts of non-fire calls, such as this building collapse, EVERY fire alarm malfunction in every alarmed building and residence in the city, people trapped in elevators, auto accidents, downed wires, water flooding basements from adjoining properties where the pipes have been stolen, and a myriad of other situations that never make the local news. Each and every situation has to be immediately responded to and investigated, there is no "we'll get there later because we are too busy".... in fire and rescue, seconds count because lives are on the line. There really is no "quiet time" for Camden's fire service.

As with the web page covering other Camden Fire Department events, if you can identify anyone that I've missed, please e-mail me. (I'm terrible at at names and faces).

Phil Cohen
July 31, 2011

On August 2, 2011 a call went out for a fire at 1031 South 5th Street, a vacant dwelling in South Camden. The fire spread to the adjacent structure at 1033 South 5th, which was also vacant. All hands were called to suppress this fire, and through the gallant efforts of the Camden Fire Department, the occupied home at 1035 South 5th Street was saved. Within two weeks of this incident, arsonists set fire to playground equipment at the Ulysses S. Wiggins School in the adjacent block.

Another house was badly damaged on August 5th, when fire struck at 1534 Park Boulevard, a two story middle-of-the-row home in Parkside, near Magnolia Avenue. When companies arrived, smoke was showing from the second floor. All hands were called out to contain this fire, with two 1-3/4" hand lines placed in operation. The blaze was quickly put out, with no damage to the surrounding occupied dwellings.

At 1:17 PM on August 17th, Camden Fire Department units responded to a call concerning a fire in an apartment at 708 Broadway. The blaze was declared under control at 1:35 PM. One police officer was transported to Cooper Hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.

On the night of August 19-20 a car fire was reported in Cramer Hill on North 24th Street between Pierce and Harrison Avenues. Engine 11 was dispatched and quickly extinguished the fire. Other car fires in Cramer Hill were also reported during the month of August.

Another routine job occurred on the afternoon of August 22, 2011 when Engine Company 9 was called upon to monitor a helicopter landing and takeoff at the Camden High School football field on Park Boulevard.

While hardly devastating, the earthquake of August 23rd contributed to the collapse of a vacant building at 948 South 5th Street in South Camden and a porch collapse at 1385 Kenwood Avenue in Parkside. Units responded to many other calls regarding alarm activations, and Squad 7 investigated reports of damage to the Baird Avenue bridge, which proved to be unfounded.

Shortly after roll call on the morning of August 26th, the Camden Fire Department was summoned to fight a fire at 549 Jackson Street. Four vacant units, 547, 549, 551, and 553 Jackson Street, were destroyed. One firefighter was injured combating this blaze.

Another natural disaster came to Camden on Saturday and Sunday, August 27 and 28, 2011 in the form of Hurricane Irene. Prior to the hurricane reaching Camden, Engine Company 6 and Ladder Company 1 put out a fire in a shanty in the woods along the riverbank near North 11th and Linden Street on the afternoon of the 27th.

During the night of the 27th, with the hurricane making landfall in South Jersey, Camden firefighters responded to several calls relating to motorists whose cars became stuck in deep water. After the hurricane passed through the area, the Camden Fire Department spent August 28th responding to innumerable calls related to flooded basements, downed wires, and suspicious fumes. If one spends any time listening to the County dispatchers on a scanner, one realizes that it's not all about the working fires, more often than not the day is an unending stream of runs relating to, as stated above, water, wires, and fumes, as well as car accidents, false alarms, stuck elevators, and the almost-daily "pot of meat".... careless cooking resulting in kitchen fires of greater or lesser magnitude. The page "Water, Wires, and Fumes" depicts Camden Fire Department and EMS personnel responding to calls about fumes on Princess Avenue and the smell of gas at 1543 South 8th Street.

On August 29th the Fire Department was again called upon to put out a fire at the "tent city" occupied by criminal trespassers in the vicinity of North 10th and Linden Streets. The refusal of city, county, and state officials to forcibly remove these people from this land has turned into an environmental and criminal nightmare. It has been determined that squatters were responsible for at least two of the four large industrial fires that occurred earlier in the summer.

On August 31, 2011 Deputy Chief Gregory J. Murphy retired after 33 years of service. Captain Curtis Farmer retired the following day. Michael DePascale was restored to his previous rank as Deputy Chief, and Brian Emenecker was restored to his rank of Captain. Two other firefighters who had been laid off last December were called back to service.

As with the web page covering other Camden Fire Department events, if you can identify anyone that I've missed, please e-mail me. (I'm terrible at at names and faces).

Phil Cohen
September 1, 2011