The six deaths came in the worst way, just hours after a joyous pre-July Fourth celebration: three small children killed, three firefighters lost trying to rescue them from an early-morning house fire in Gloucester City.

They came early yesterday after one of those firefighters, Thomas Stewart III, 30, of Gloucester City, had ascended a ladder during the festivities Wednesday and proposed to his girlfriend over a public-address system. (photo)

They sent two close-knit Camden County towns into mourning yesterday, for Mount Ephraim's two top-ranking volunteer firefighters - 41, a Camden County fire marshal with three young children.

And they reverberated throughout a region where many towns were celebrating the first Independence Day after Sept. 11 with parades honoring rescue workers.

"Today is an example of courage, selflessness, and the supreme sacrifice," said Gov. McGreevey, who visited the scene yesterday morning.

McGreevey said the state will fund the college educations of the firefighters' children.

The fire in the 200 block of North Broadway is being investigated by the New Jersey State Police arson unit and the Camden County Prosecutor's Office. A cause had not been determined yesterday.

It was among the largest local losses of firefighters' lives: The One Meridian Plaza fire of 1991 in Center City Philadelphia killed three firefighters, and in 1975, eight died in a Gulf Oil refinery blaze in the city.

Little was known yesterday about the three young victims, 3-year-old twins and their 5-year-old sister. Their parents escaped, though their mother was in critical condition at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Delaware County. Their names were not released.

The fire was reported shortly after 1:30 a.m. in a 2 1/2-story duplex that had recently received a certificate of occupancy. Neighbors said that the victims had lived there about a year, and that the residents of the other unit were on their honeymoon.

'Flames moved quickly'

Former firefighter Harry Tomlin, 41, who lives across the street and was a friend of Thomas Stewart's, said he was among the first to report the fire.

"I heard a ruckus outside, people yelling; it sounded like a fight," he said. "I went out, saw the fire. I went and got my pants on and my wife said there were people trapped. " He called 911.

"When I went outside, the father was screaming that his children were inside. But by that time, there was no way we could get in. The heat was pushing us back. "

Tomlin said a woman appeared on the roof. "I was begging her not to go back inside. But fire does funny things to people. She went back inside.

"The flames moved quickly. It was hot as a frying pan on the roof where she was. I felt helpless," Tomlin said.

Next-door neighbor Bobbi Ann Dieterich, 31, also saw the mother screaming for help and called 911. After fleeing her home, Dieterich said she watched the blaze engulf the duplex's first floor, spread to a tree, then to the top floor.

Monique Gagliardi, 34, noticed the blaze when the heat level rose inside her home, and took to the street. "There wasn't a window that there wasn't a flame coming out of," she said.

Fire officials said the house partially collapsed, and workers sounded an emergency evacuation. But suddenly, the entire structure fell, trapping eight firefighters under burning debris.

Gagliardi said the house fell "like a deck of cards. It looked like everything was under control, and then it just collapsed. Everybody was running. "

Five of the eight were rescued. They and three other firefighters were treated at area hospitals and released.

The fire was left burning hours longer than normal, officials said, to prevent forcing hot gas into the debris, where the victims were trapped.

The fire was out shortly after 5 a.m., and rescuers used backhoes to clear rubble while they searched for victims. When a firefighter's body was removed about 8 a.m., police and firefighters lined up and saluted.

'We were that close'

"The most painful thing in this process," Camden County Fire Marshal Paul Hartstein said, "was the hope they were still alive. Just to know we were that close . . . but they were pinned by so much debris. "

Throughout the sweltering day, demolition crews sorted through the ruins, seeking the third child, who was found about 1 p.m.

In a scene reminiscent of the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse, firefighters doffed their hats as they were led in prayer by the Rev. Michael Manion of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Camden. Then they gently lifted the last body from the ruins and carried it away.

Hundreds of rescue workers helped throughout the day, including fire companies from Camden and Gloucester Counties as well as Philadelphia. U.S. Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D., N.J.) also visited the scene.

West   joined the county Fire Marshal's Office in 1990, Hartstein said. An eager, thorough investigator, he rose to head of the county canine unit and was rarely seen without his Labrador retriever, Raider.

He and his wife, Angela, had three children - a toddler, John Jr., and daughters Alyssa and Nicole.

Sylvester and his wife of three years, Marilyn, were expecting their first child next month.

A lifelong resident of Mount Ephraim, Sylvester seemed born to be a fireman - as a child, his favorite place was the fire station, where his father was chief.

Everyone in town assumed Sylvester would follow his father. "He was a great kid, and he grew up to be a great guy," said Mount Ephraim Commissioner James Weist Jr. "But always, his hobby was firefighting. "

Both West and Sylvester, who was the borough's public works director, taught at the Camden County Fire Academy.

Stewart, son of a prominent Gloucester City family of firefighters, was remembered as kind and helpful.

"He was always the one who took care of people when something like this happened," said Gagliardi, a friend. "I was told he went back in after the mom. He was yelling for everyone else to get out. The mom went back after the kids, and he went in after the mom. "

Wednesday afternoon, Stewart was anxious but obviously overjoyed as he prepared to propose to Danielle Ruggiero, mother of his 2-year-old son, Nicholas. He told an Inquirer reporter that he was "great, but I'll be a lot better when this is over. "

He said he had planned every detail, and had even obtained the fire chief's permission to bring a fire truck to the holiday event, an unusual circumstance. Stewart climbed the truck's ladder, then proposed to Ruggiero.

After she accepted before cheering crowds, Stewart spent the night calling friends to tell them the news.

Firehouses in Gloucester City and Mount Ephraim became shrines yesterday, and holiday festivities were canceled. It was a second recent tragedy for Mount Ephraim, traumatized from a May disaster in which a car plowed into a McDonald's on Black Horse Pike, killing three workers.

And in Gloucester City, a blue-collar dock town under the Walt Whitman Bridge, shaken residents yesterday recalled the joy of the night before, the parade with string bands, floats, and fire-engine rides.

"The firefighters drove by this very site," said Bob Gorman, Gloucester City's mayor. "They just weren't thinking they'd be back so quickly. "

Last night, a firefighters' group announced it would seek national and state inquiries into the blaze.

In a statement, the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey said "an inadequate number of trained and equipped firefighters" may have contributed to the six fatalities.

Gloucester City fire officials were not immediately available for comment.

Inquirer staff writers Martha Woodall and Juliet Chung contributed to this article, which also contains information from the Associated Press.

from the archives of the Philadelphia Inquirer

Photos provided by Bill Bates. Photo one Firefighter Tom Stewart, Photo two Chief James Sylvester Photo Three Deputy Chief John West 

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