Firefighters Lewis Pinella and Brian Hoiberg, a North Brunswick police sergeant, suffered second- and third-degree burns Sunday afternoon after being trapped on the second-floor of a two-story Frank Street home filled with smoke and flames, authorities said.
They were in critical but stable condition yesterday in the burn intensive care unit at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Both of the men's families gathered at the hospital yesterday, while at their firehouses concerned friends kept telephones ringing.
Fellow volunteers also left work throughout the day to stop by the firehouses to find out the latest on the firefighters' medical conditions.
Sunday's fire ignited in a rear first-floor bedroom, and the cause appears to be an overloaded metal power strip that had three extension cords plugged into it, and more extension cords plugged into those, said John Hauss, director of fire prevention.
The cause appears to be accidental, and no charges will be filed, Hauss said.
Pinella and Hoiberg were two of the first volunteers who responded to Sunday's 1:10 p.m. call at 116 Frank St., where a neighbor told police a woman might still be on the second floor. Police officers had knocked the front door down and called out for the woman, but there was no answer.
But Pinella and Hoiberg went in.
They searched the upstairs bedrooms when a ball of flames climbed the stairwell, trapping the two on the second floor. With no way to escape, Pinella leaped out of a window into the arms of firefighter, Angel Natel, authorities said.
Then, firefighters Jamie Skinner and Darren Carroll propped a ladder against the window and helped Hoiberg climb down.
Pinella, a member of Community Fire Company 3, suffered burns to his hands, neck and back, and Hoiberg suffered burns to the top of his head, his back and the back of his legs, Krushinski said.
Community Fire Company Chief James Greene and assistant chief Chris Calvo also were injured fighting the fire. They were released yesterday from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, authorities said.
The Rev. Ronald M. Hill, pastor of the nearby Emanuel Tabernacle Baptist Church, built the house on Frank Street more than 40 years ago, family members said yesterday.
Some of Hill's 12 children converged on the home yesterday, and all bemoaned the same grim fact: their repository of family treasures was gone, burned in the fire.
"We lost everything -- a lot of photos and home movies, everybody's high school graduation pictures," Ivin Hill, 58, a disabled former general contractor, said as snow fell on him out in the street. "That's 48 years of history."
"Our prayers and our sympathies go out to them," said Kevin Hill, 48, of the injured firefighters.
He had lived in the home with his 84-year-old father, who uses a wheelchair. When the fire broke out, he and the other four people residing at 116 Frank St. were at church, Kevin Hill said.
Other relatives who dropped by yesterday spoke about how the roots of the Hill family have spread from the modest home on Frank Street. Every July a family reunion to honor the Rev. Hill's birthday draws more than 100 people, a family member said. In recent years, the reunion has moved from Frank Street to local parks.
"He has more than 60 grandkids, 64 at last count" as well as some great grandchildren, said Lavell Hill, 38.
Even before the fire, the family's time on Frank Street was coming to a close.
Lavell Hill said the home was slated to be sold to the Renaissance 2000 program, a 10-year redevelopment plan for the Route 27 corridor between Franklin and New Brunswick. His father and other family members were preparing to move, most likely this year.
Hill was unavailable for comment yesterday, Ivin Hill said. The Rev. Hill's wife, Marie, who was also a Baptist minister, died a few years ago.
Those who lived in the home are staying with friends and family.
"We'll always have our memories," said DeMaris Brown-Ross, the Rev. Hill's granddaughter. "But (the home) was our foundation."
Copyright 2003 Courier News, Home News Tribune. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved
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