By Darran Simon
The Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, N.J. — After two large fires that tore through vacant warehouses within days of each other last week, Camden’s mayor voiced her concern Monday to the state attorney general.
Speaking at a news conference, Mayor Dana L. Redd did not say whether officials thought that Thursday’s 12-alarm blaze at a building near the Parkside neighborhood, once rented by a tire company, or Saturday’s eight-alarmer in a former garment factory in Waterfront South were considered suspicious.
“My concern is the fact that [the fires] happened within a very short period of time,” Redd said Monday, but would not elaborate.
No deaths or major injuries occurred in either fire.
It could take weeks for the city and county fire marshal’s offices and other agencies to determine the causes of the blazes, officials said.
The attorney general’s staff is not involved in those investigations, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the office. It will provide assistance if needed, he said.
The size of the fires also was troubling, city attorney Marc Riondino said.
Redd said she wanted to “dispel any misinformation” about the need for manpower from other towns to help Camden firefighters on Thursday and Saturday. Camden’s Fire Department is down by 29 positions after layoffs by the cash-strapped city in January.
Camden relies on assistance from suburban companies, most of them staffed by volunteers, when the city’s eight companies are all deployed.
On Friday, Kenny Chambers, the union president for Camden’s firefighters, said the response by fire departments from more than three dozen towns in Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester Counties that night left those towns vulnerable had a fire broken out in any of them.
A coordinator oversees delivery of mutual aid within the county, and Camden has given the same assistance to its neighbors, Redd said.
“Never has mutual aid in responding to the city of Camden depleted the resources of our surrounding towns,” Redd said.
Redd also disputed an assertion by Chambers that there might have been less property damage had more Camden firefighters been on the payroll. Redd, who has found funds to rehire 31 of the 60 firefighters laid off, said the magnitude of the recent fires would have required assistance no matter what.
“Our staffing levels pre-layoff would not have been able to tackle those fires without mutual-aid support,” she said.
The city has applied for a $5.8 million federal grant to rehire more fire personnel, Redd said.
Sixteen families were displaced by Thursday’s fire, which started around 4:30 p.m. in a building at Chestnut and Orchard Streets and engulfed most of two city blocks. City officials and the county branch of the American Red Cross have worked to get children who were displaced from home back into their classrooms. Officials also are seeking long-term housing for those affected by the fire.
Reliable Tire Co. rented the Chestnut Street building between 1964 and 1999. Chestnut Realty Association, which is listed as the building’s owner, “may be a defunct corporation,” Riondino said.
A fund that the city plans to establish at PNC Bank will assist victims of Thursday’s and Saturday’s fires.
The second blaze was at Winslow and Fourth Streets. That fire, which erupted about 2:30 a.m. and was under control by 6 a.m., mostly spared an adjacent block of rowhouses. About 30 residents were displaced, but most returned to their homes that morning.
The Howland Croft Sons & Co. building, which had been used to store building materials and computer monitors, was a haunt of drug dealers and prostitutes, residents said.
Riondino said the property’s owner had complied with requests from fire officials to secure the building.
Vandalized fire hydrants, a problem on Thursday, were not a factor on Saturday, Camden Fire Chief Michael Harper said.
Some Waterfront South residents had to replace food that spoiled after their refrigerators were without power for hours. At least one resident praised the efforts by city and local fire departments.
“We really think the firemen did an excellent job. They worked so hard,” said Rose Johnson, who lives a block from the fire.
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
Copyright 2011 Philadelphia Newspapers, LLC
All Rights Reserved