Christine Olley
The Philadelphia Daily News
The thick stench of smoke still hung in the air yesterday as neighbors of a man killed in an arson fire early yesterday in North Philadelphia wondered why.
The fire on Taylor Street near Thompson was under control in 10 minutes, Executive Fire Chief Daniel Williams said, and firefighters recovered the body of Hajj Blackwell, 38, who lived there.
A neighbor said she heard breaking glass and yelling around the time the fire started. Police are investigating Blackwell’s death as a homicide.
Jeff Moran, a spokesman for the medical examiner’s office,said that an autopsy would be conducted today.
Yesterday afternoon, the Fire Marshal declared the cause of the fire to be arson.
According to Williams, the fire broke out about 4 a.m. on the first floor of the two-story rowhouse.
A next-door neighbor, who gave his name only as Nathaniel, said he woke up yesterday morning because the smoke from the fire next door was seeping through his thin walls.
“I was the one that called the fire department because I woke up to the smoke and looked out and realized what was going on,” Nathaniel said.
Another neighbor, who asked that her name not be used, said she heard a commotion on her block yesterday morning and thought it was a neighborhood vandal.
“I heard all of the glass breaking and someone yelling, but I thought that it was just someone who was breaking a car window. So then, I went and looked out and saw that the house was up in flames,” the woman said.
Williams said that the house had a working smoke alarm that sounded once the fire started.
Yesterday, homicide investigators and crime-scene-unit officers processed the scene looking for clues that might lead them to the man’s killer.
Homicide Sgt. William Gallagher said that the investigation was ongoing, but that the motive for the man’s murder appeared to be robbery.
Neighbors didn’t know the name of the man who perished in the fire, but said that he would politely say hello on his way to and from work.
Nathaniel said his neighbor didn’t talk much.
“When he did, though, he was so polite. He always called me ‘Sir’ and was very nice,” Nathaniel said.
“Other than that, though, he just kept to himself, got up, went to work and came home. He was a really quiet guy,” Nathaniel added.
“It’s definitely a shame.”
Williams said yesterday’s death was the first fire fatality of 2008.
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