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This
page and the other pages in this series are the successors to the series
of web-page about the Camden Fire Department called Camden
Fire Department: The Fires of the Summer of 2011. On this and other
pages in the series you will find pictures and information regarding
different events and aspects of the fire service in Camden, New
Jersey.
On
Saturday night, December 3, 2011 units of the Camden Fire Department
were called out to extinguish a rubbish fire that had been set in the
buildings formerly occupied by the Coriell Institute for Medical
Research, on Davis Street at Copewood Street. This fire was knocked down
in short order, but the miscreants who had set it came back on Sunday,
December 4, and this blaze required considerably more effort to combat.
Multiple calls were received reporting the building on fire. Squad 7 arrived with fire showing in the rear. Squad 7 laid in and went into operation with a 1-3/4" hand line. Battalion
Chief Ed Glassman used Ladder Company 2 and Engine Company 10 to assist on the
assignment.
The
site had been the home of the Camden
Municipal Hospital for Contagious Diseases, whose last director was
Dr. Lewis Coriell. At some point after 1956 the hospital was closed and razed.
The property was subdivided, Decatur Street was extended from Pershing
Street to Davis Street, and a series of two story apartments were
erected on the north side of Decatur Street. Dr. Coriell erected a
research laboratory on the south side of Decatur Street, and operated as
the Institute for Medical Research and as the South Jersey Medical Research Foundation.
In the 1980s the facility was renamed the Coriell Institute for Medical Research and
moved to new quarters on Haddon Avenue and Washington Street. The laboratory building and other structures remained in use into the early 2000s, but subsequently became vacant, and
were vandalized. Prior to the incidents of December 3 and December 4, a
small fire was dealt with in June by the Camden Fire Department.
I
arrived on sight and began taking pictures at 7:43 P.M., shortly after
the blaze had been placed under control. The fire was in a part of the
complex quite some distance from any overhead street lighting and it was
very dark. CFD personnel were operating with handheld lights during the
time that I observed operations. The photos below are presented in the
order in which they were taken, and in some cases two versions of the
same shot are presented... what I saw, or didn't see, as it was quite
dark; and a "lightened up" version via Photoshop so you can
see what was going on and what the conditions were.
The
units involved were Battalion Chief Ed Glassman; Squad 7 (Captain Warren
Everett, Firefighters Michael Mercado, Danny Gonzalez, Gerry Medina);
Ladder 2 (Captain Ed Stratton, Firefighters Gabe Angemi, Johnnie
Broadwater, Darien Gans); and Engine 10 (Captain Brian Irving,
Firefighters Dominic Barret, Tyrone Baker, Jay Snyder).
As
with the web page covering other Camden Fire Department events, if you can
identify anyone that I've missed, please e-mail me. (I'm terrible
at at names and faces).
Phil
Cohen
December 6, 2011 |
