By Jana Cholakovska
nj.com
CAMDEN, N.J. — Dwight Way lunged awake to the piercing wail of a smoke alarm.
He bolted downstairs, but found no fire. No smoke. Annoyed and groggy, he disabled the alarm and began the slow climb back upstairs.
That’s when he saw it: soot blackening the edges of his uncle’s bedroom door.
He forced it open, and a wall of heat and thick, black smoke blasted him back. Eric Way, who relied on a walker after a hip injury, was all but trapped in his bed, a curtain of flames raging behind him.
“Nephew, call 911,” he shouted.
Just eight blocks away, the crew of Camden Fire Department’s Engine 10 scrambled into action. But around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 12, another malfunction on one of its aging fire trucks critically delayed its response.
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A leak in the 23-year-old engine’s air pump more than doubled the crew’s usual response time, halting its efforts by roughly three minutes, according to Samuel Muñoz, president of the Camden Fire Officers Local 2578. Another company arrived within four minutes of the 911 call, two crucial minutes later than Engine 10 should have arrived, Muñoz said.
By the time firefighters pulled Eric Way out of the house, he was unresponsive and burned over 75% of his body, according to the Camden Fire Marshal’s investigation report.
He died the next day. He was 60 years old.
“All I could do was cry,” said Dwight, his voice breaking.
It was the second time Camden firefighters were impeded by an equipment malfunction at a fatal fire since 2024 as its aging fleet of vehicles has reached a crisis level, according to rank-and-file firefighters and union officials. Shawn Bryant, 35, died in a March 2024 house fire in which firefighters’ efforts were “severely hindered” by failed equipment, they reported in an internal memo.
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Rising costs and multiyear delays for new rigs have forced the city’s fire department — and many others across the state — to depend on failing, unreliable vehicles, an NJ Advance Media investigation found in November.
That crisis puts firefighters — and the residents they protect — at risk.
It’s impossible to determine whether the equipment failure in Camden directly contributed to Eric’s death. But the air pump malfunction “significantly” affected firefighters’ efforts, a concerned captain from Engine 10 wrote in a memo, obtained by NJ Advance Media, to department leaders.
“This situation is not only unsafe but also unacceptable as a department,” Capt. Kyo Vargas wrote on Nov. 12, before knowing Eric would die from his injuries. “Time is critical in every response, and we cannot allow mechanical issues to compromise our mission or the service we provide to the residents of Camden.”
Vargas declined to share the memo with NJ Advance Media and turned down an interview request through union officials.
The city acknowledges that “one unit had difficulty” while responding to the fire, spokesman Vincent Basara said in a written statement. But “there is no proof that any delay by that specific truck caused the individual to succumb to injuries,” he wrote.
The fire department “had an issue with only one apparatus but made the appropriate adjustments, fought the fire, rescued a victim, and performed within recognized standards,” Basara wrote.
But the fire truck Engine 10 used that morning was a spare instead of its normal rig, which was out of service due to its own air leak, according to Muñoz. The substitute 23-year-old engine — utilized more than a decade beyond the expected 10-year lifespan of a front-line truck — had been sidelined itself as recently as September with yet another air leak, internal records show.
In fact, Engine 10’s normal rig has been taken out of service for repairs 35 times since June 16, according to union leader William Perez. And as of Jan. 6, the 13-year-old truck was again out of service, this time for acceleration problems, according to a memo by Camden Deputy Fire Chief Frank Sandrock, obtained by NJ Advance Media.
Overall, seven of Camden’s fire trucks were out of service for problems ranging from burned-out warning lights and frayed electrical cables to air leaks and motor troubles, the same memo reports. And as of Jan. 9 , the city of 72,000 residents was down to just one ladder truck, specialized rigs equipped with an aerial ladder used to reach upper floors and roofs, according to internal documents. Two other ladder trucks were out of service, including one for “unexpected repairs.”
The city has invested $6 million in new fire vehicles since 2023, Mayor Victor Carstarphen said last summer.
But “this crisis won’t be solved by simply purchasing new trucks,” Perez said. “Unless the city changes its operational approach and budgets for proactive maintenance and replacement cycles, these dangerous situations will continue, even after new trucks arrive.
“The residents suffer, and so do the firefighters who are sworn to protect them.”
Crisis in Camden
The smoke was overpowering.
Dwight, 51, began coughing and tearing up the moment he opened his uncle’s door that fateful morning, overcome by the noxious cloud and heat. By the time he made it outside to call 911, the smoke had grown too suffocating to reenter his narrow, two-story home.
So he waited for the fire department.
Fire engine pumps are essential for controlling the volume and pressure of water coming from a hydrant.
Without that control, too much or too little water could flow through the hose, creating serious operational and safety risks. An air leak — like the one Engine 10’s truck sustained — prevents the pump from building adequate pressure, and fire crews are usually barred from responding to calls if it isn’t functioning properly.
Engine 10 was able to get its pump working, but the effort caused the crew’s delayed response, union officials say. Firefighters pulled Eric from the home about nine minutes after the call for help.
“If that delay didn’t happen, maybe things would’ve played out differently,” said Dwight, who works at the Gloucester Marine Terminal in Gloucester City.
The cause of the fire remains undetermined, according to an investigation by the city’s Fire Marshal’s Office.
Even just a minute-long delay can spell the difference between life and death for victims of house fires. An industry rule of thumb says it takes only 15 to 30 seconds for a manageable fire to double in size. Every second counts.
Almost two years before Eric Way’s death, another Camden resident died when an equipment failure “severely hindered” firefighters’ efforts to suppress a blaze, the department reported in an internal memo. An aging fire truck’s pump failed for several minutes in March 2024, forcing firefighters to temporarily halt their search for Bryant.
The city maintained that the equipment malfunction didn’t affect the crew’s response and said linking it to his death was “very unfair.” Bryant died of smoke inhalation, according to his family.
The fire truck’s pump failed twice that night after the engine arrived on scene, eventually forcing the crew to hook up to another company’s rig to extinguish the flames, according to incident reports.
“Shawn’s death was one of those things that shouldn’t have happened,” his sister, Brenda Bryant, told NJ Advance Media. “It could’ve been avoided.”
Now Eric Way’s death has renewed fears about the department’s fleet.
Other crews were already battling the blaze at his home when Engine 10 arrived, so its firefighters helped place him on a stretcher before he was rushed to the hospital.
He was covered in third-degree burns.
“All I could think was, ‘I pray this man lives,’” said Perez, who was at the scene.
Eric was single with no children. He held a variety of jobs throughout his life, but recently was on disability due to a workplace hip injury.
Dwight fondly recalled childhood memories of playing basketball and selling snow cones with his uncle along the Camden waterfront. They remained close as adults, and Eric had moved in with Dwight about two years ago.
“Losing him in this way was something none of us ever imagined,” Dwight said. “I’m heartbroken.”
Eric’s life insurance policy had lapsed before his death, leaving his family with bills they cannot afford. They managed to raise just enough to cover his cremation and hope to hold a memorial service in the future, Dwight said.
Meanwhile, Camden has secured funding and placed orders for new fire trucks. The problem? Delivery could take years due to ongoing production backlogs and supply delays.
Fire truck prices have soared about 30% since the COVID-19 pandemic, driven in part by private equity firms consolidating the market and inflating prices in pursuit of steep profits. Some truck models now top $1 million.
At the same time, years-long production delays have forced departments across the state — including in Millville, Newark, Trenton, West Orange and Woodbridge — to keep aging, failure-prone rigs in service.
Camden’s deteriorating fleet and recurring equipment failures are a threat to the community, firefighters say. They fear that without reliable trucks, more lives could be at risk.
“While we understand there are ongoing budgetary challenges,” Vargas wrote to department leaders in his memo, “we must ensure these issues do not hinder our operational effectiveness or our duty to protect life and property.”
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