|
|
Ronald |
|
|
Ronald |
|
RONALD E. GUERNON was a career fire fighter with the Camden Fire Department. After being promoted to Captain, he served as the Chief Training Officer on 1977. By December of 1983 he had been promoted to Battalion Chief, in which capacity he was working out of the firehouse at 615 Kaighn Avenue on Christmas Day. He retired from the department on April 1, 1990. |
|
FIRE
TRAINING ACADEMY Education is becoming a major factor in all aspects of fire inspection and fire suppresion. The importance of education is so vital that even colleges and universities now offer Fire Science Curriculums. The growth of our nation's population and economy demands an increasing emphasis on protective services. The Fire Science Technology and Protection Curriculum provides professional training and education for firefighting personnel. Some of the courses being offered this semester at Camden County College are, Hydraulic Technology, Introduction to Fire Technology, and Building Codes and Standards. The Fire Academy has just taken delivery of a new set of 35 mm. slides on "The Firefighter and Plastics In a Changing Environment." This presentation will be conducted at each station in the very near future. In the past three months the Fire Training Academy has graduated three new probationary firefighters. At this time we would like to congratulate them and wish them a fine and fulfilling career in the Camden Fire Department. A PROFESSIONAL FIREFIGHTER IS A WELL TRAINED FIREFIGHTER. |
|
The last major incident of the year 1983 occurred on Christmas morning, December 25th. Christmas 1983 dawned on a clear, sunny day with frigid temperatures near the five degree mark. As families everywhere prepared to celebrate the solemn holiday, the men in the firehouses around the City had settled into what everyone expected to be an uneventful tour of duty. Holiday routine as It is traditionally known in the Camden Fire Department, are quiet times in the firehouse. Particularly on special days like Christmas when the environment of the fire station with its concrete floors and the ever present smell of diesel fuel, seem to assume a peaceful, even homey atmosphere. The fire fighters are often engaged in personal activities - some quietly reading or watching a holiday program on television, while still others are busy preparing the noon meal for their brothers. A few minutes after 10 A.M., the quiet tranquility of the firehouse was shattered by the shrill sound of the alarm tones over the department radio, followed by the blaring voice of the fire dispatcher announcing a structural fire at Fourth Street and Lansdowne A venue, South Camden. Engine Company 8 and Ladder Company 2 assigned first due, left the warm confines of their ancient firehouse and entered the biting cold of Kaighns Avenue heading west toward Broadway. From several blocks away, they could see the gray and yellow streams of smoke blowing over the rooftops. As Engine Company 8 entered the block, heavy menacing smoke billowed from the second floor of a two-story dwelling attached in the middle of a row of eight buildings. In the bone chilling cold of the street whipped by ferocious winds, stood a family of occupants huddled together, some wrapped in blankets, as they watched their Christmas turned into ashes. The absence of integral party walls allowed the fire to rapidly extend to adjoining buildings. Battalion Chief Ronald Guernon pulled a second alarm on arrival as hose lines were aggressively advanced to the second floors of three buildings. Ladder companies armed with roof saws performed rapid ventilation to stem the spread of fire. As heavy fire conditions took possession of the top floors and cockloft of at least three buildings, third and fourth alarms were transmitted. Fire fighters were punished by the extreme cold and constant battering of gale force winds as heavy icing made footing treacherous. Following a two hour battle, the flames were finally subdued but not before at least four families were made homeless. Shivering on the sidewalk, the occupants stared in disbelief at the ruins of all their worldly possessions and of what their holiday might have been. Near the front windows of one building a Christmas tree could be seen, still standing in the corner of a room adorned by once colorful decorations, now tarnished an ugly brown and coated in real icicles where tinsel had hung. Ashes and debris now lay where gift wrapped presents had been. As the homeless children wept openly in the street, fire fighters went silently about their work knowing that the real gift that Christmas, had been no loss of life or injuries to the occupants. That the families would live on to enjoy other Christmas Days together. |
|
NEW YORK TIMES - MARCH 18, 1984 |
|
Three Children Dead After Fire in Camden CAMDEN,
N.J., March 18 (AP) - A 4-year-old girl died today of burns suffered in a
fire Saturday night that killed two of her brothers and injured her mother
and an infant brother, officials said today. Firefighters
responding to the alarm at 10:50 P.M. found the children's mother, Blair
Cherry, with her 9-month-old son, Lorimar, outside her two-story brick
home at 1275 Mechanic
Street as flames shot from every window, the officials said. Inside,
Battalion Chief Ronald Guernon said, the firefighters found the bodies of
Zirer Cherry, 5, and his brother, Lawrence, 2, The
fourth child, Lyasia, 4, was found by a firefighter but died today at St.
Agnes Medical Center in Philadelphia. Lorimar
was listed in serious condition at Cooper
Hospital, and the mother was in stable condition, suffering from smoke
inhalation, at Our Lady of
Lourdes Hospital. The cause of the fire was under investigation.. |
