1973 — Jan 29, Arson Fire, Street’s Sheltered Care Rest Home, Pleasantville, NJ — 10

–10 Bridgeport Post (CT). “Arson Charged in Jersey Fire,” Jan 30, 1973.
–10 Dunkirk Evening Observer (NY). “10 Nursing Home Residents Die…,”Jan 29, 1973, p. 5.
–10 NFPA. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1973,” Fire Journal. Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, p. 71.
–10 NFPA. “Summary of Fire Deaths in Hospitals, Nursing Homes and Homes for the Aged.”
(In US House Report, Fires in Boarding Homes: The Tip of the Iceberg. 4-25-1979, p.314.)
–10 Peterson. “Boarding Home Fire, Pleasantville, New Jersey.” Fire Journal, July 1973, p. 25.
–10 U.S. Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. August 1975, p. 462.
–10 Waterloo Daily Courier (IA). “10 Killed in New Jersey.” Jan 29, 1973.

Narrative Information

National Fire Protection Association, Fire Journal, May 1974: “Boarding home, Pleasantville, New Jersey. Ten people were killed when Street’s Rest Home burned on January 29. Six of the residents and the two employees escaped when this 17-bed two-story wood-frame building was almost totally destroyed by fire around 1:00 am. A resident of the building has been charged with setting the fire in a linen room near the center of the building.” (National Fire Protection Association. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1973,” Fire Journal. Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, p. 71.)

U.S. Senate: “Ten of sixteen residents in Steel’s Rest Home died. The home was a two-story, wood-frame building converted for use as a long-term care facility. Four additions were principally wood frame, with 1/8-inch ply¬wood paneling and bare wood floors. It had a manual alarm system and a heat and smoke detection system tied to the local fire department, but it apparently did not operate. The fire was reported at 12:42 a.m. by a passing policeman. The nearest hydrant was 3,200 feet away. Although the fire department arrived quickly, it had only 1,100 gallons of water available. One woman attendant was on duty and another employee was asleep on a couch. Someone started the fire by igniting some bedding with a match in the basement of the home.” (US Senate. Nursing Home Care in the United States. Aug 1975, 462.)

Newspapers

Jan 29, United Press International: “Pleasantville, N.J. (UPI) — Ten persons, including a 106-year-old woman, died early today when fire swept through a nursing home. State police said the 10 were among 16 patients in the Streets Sheltered Care Home in Pleasantville, about seven miles west of Atlantic City. Mrs. Minor Pierce, the home’s night attendant, said she had completed her rounds when she saw flames shooting out of the linen closet shortly after midnight. Flames spread rapidly through the 16-room home, she said. Mrs.. Pierce said there were 16 patients in the building at the time. “We got six out,” she said. She said the patients ranged in age from 22 to 106 years.” (Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “10 Nursing Home Residents Die…,”Jan 29, 1973, p. 5.)

Jan 29, Associated Press: “Pleasantville, N.J. (AP) — At. Least 10 persons died early Monday when a swiftly moving fire destroyed a nursing home for elderly people, fire officials reported. Six other persons were known to have survived the fire at Street’s Rest Home, a fire department spokesman said. The spokesman also said he believed that all the victims were elderly persons.

“By the time firemen arrived at the two-story wooden frame structure, flames were shooting out of first-story windows, the spokesman added. He said that precious time was lost because firemen had to string hoses together to reach the nearest hydrant, which is three-quarters of a mile away. The fire was finally extinguished about three hours later…. Pleasantville is located just north of Atlantic City. “There was no life when we got here,” said Fire Chief Walt S. Schlundt. “I walked around the building but heard no hollering or screaming.” “The smoke had apparently gotten to them by then,” Schlundt said. Schlundt said initial indications were that the fire had begun in a linen closet.

“The fire alarm was turned in by Absecon Police Sgt. James Meng, who spotted the blaze while patrolling a street that serves as the Pleasantville- Absecon border. The nursing home’s fire alarm, which had been inspected recently as required by state law, did not work, Schlundt said.
The fire chief estimated that the building was “at least 50 years old”.” (Waterloo Daily Courier (IA). “10 Killed in New Jersey.” Jan 29, 1973.)

Jan 30: “Pleasantville, N.J. (AP) — State Police have charged a young Baltimore man with arson in connection with a fire at a rest home that took the lives of 10 elderly residents.
Harry Kemp, 22, was arrested late Monday and is under guard at Somers Point Hospital for treatment of burns he suffered in the fire. He was to be arraigned today. Kemp was one of six residents of Street’s Rest Home who escaped the fire in the two-story, wood-frame building, along with two employes. Four of the victims of the fire on Monday were women, one 106 years old. The other victims were in their 70s and 80s.

”Deputy Fire Chief Walt S. Schlundt said an alarm system connected to the fire department failed to go off, but occupants of the home who fled safely said an internal alarm did sound.
The two employes who escaped, Mrs. Minor Pierce and Gary Wilson, said that after the fire was discovered they tried to awaken all residents. They led four of six first-floor residents to safety.
The eight other victims occupied separate second-floor rooms in the home, located in a sparsely populated section of this community just west of Atlantic City.” (Bridgeport Post (CT). “Arson Charged in Jersey Fire,” Jan 30, 1973.)

Sources

Bridgeport Post, CT. “Arson Charged in Jersey Fire,” Jan 30, 1973. Accessed at: http://www3.gendisasters.com/new-jersey/12863/pleasantville-nj-nursing-home-fire-jan-1973

Dunkirk Evening Observer, NY. “10 Nursing Home Residents Die in Fire,” Jan 29, 1973, p. 5. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=130454094

National Fire Protection Association. “Multiple-Death Fires, 1973,” Fire Journal. Vol. 68, No. 3, May 1974, pp. 69-71 & 76.

Peterson, Carl E. “Boarding Home Fire, Pleasantville, New Jersey.” NFPA Fire Journal, Vol. 67, No. 4, July 1973, pp. 25-28 and 32.

United States House of Representatives. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care of the Select Committee on Aging, Ninety-Sixth Congress First Session., Fires in Boarding Homes: The Tip of the Iceberg (Committee Publication No. 96-187). 4-25-1979.

United States Senate, Subcommittee on Long-Term Care of the Special Committee on Aging. Nursing Home Care in the United States: Failure in Public Policy. Supporting Paper No. 5, The Continuing Chronicle of Nursing Home Fires (Report No. 94-00). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, August 1975. Accessed 1-14-2022 at: https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/reports/rpt475.pdf

Waterloo Daily Courier, IA. “10 Killed in New Jersey.” Jan 29, 1973. Accessed at: http://www3.gendisasters.com/new-jersey/12863/pleasantville-nj-nursing-home-fire-jan-1973