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Photo By Vernon Ogrodnek 3/11/02

CIGARETTE ASHES START FIRE AT ATLANTIC CITY CONDOMINIUMS

Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Section: Region
Edition: Atlantic
Page: C3
Byline: By BRIDGET MURPHY Staff Writer

Caption:
Safe by a whisker in Atlantic City fire
Emergency medical technician Beth Engler holds Bugsy the cat, who escaped
Monday from a fire at the Albany Dunes condominiums on Atlantic Avenue in
Atlantic City. The cat, who received oxygen after fleeing thebuilding, had
been temporarily trapped in a room where the fire started from cigarette
ashes on a couch. No one was injured in the fire.

Victoria LaRosa's cat Bugsy lost one of his nine lives Monday after
cigarette ashes LaRosa accidentally flicked onto her couch caused a
two-alarm fire in her Atlantic Avenue condo, leaving the tabby temporarily
trapped in a fourth-floor apartment filled with smoke and flames.
Three companies of firefighters responded to 3801 Atlantic Ave., the
Albany Dunes condominiums, at 2:25 p.m., under the command of Battalion
Chief John Johnson.
Johnson called a second alarm after firefighters had trouble finding
windows in the apartment to vent the heavy smoke. That alarm, at 2:36
p.m., brought two more fire companies to the scene, along with Deputy Fire
Chief Rick Francesco and other Fire Department personnel.
But firefighters were able to put out the flames quickly after a hose was
brought up to the fourth floor, Johnson said. A sprinkler system had
activated in a nearby room, keeping the fire that began in the couch
contained to the living room.
He declared the fire under control in about 20 minutes.
But there were moments of panic as news of the fire first spread among
residents of the four-story building, located in Lower Chelsea near
Trenton Avenue.
LaRosa, 39, was sitting on her couch reading a romance novel while smoking
when stray ashes sparked the fire.
When she saw the fire she went to the kitchen and filled a bucket with
water, which she tossed on the couch. When the flames didn't go out, she
ran back into the kitchen for more water.
But on the way back out to the living room, the smoke stopped her in her
tracks. So she headed for the door and ran to the second floor for help,
alerting other residents to get out of the building.
Second-floor resident Jackie Jameson went to LaRosa's apartment with
another resident to try to fight the fire, and after breaking a open glass
compartment in the hallway to get a fire extinguisher, he kicked the door
open. But the flames and smoke were out of control.
"When we couldn't put it out, we knocked on everybody's doors. One guy
couldn't walk, so I carried him," said Jameson, 51.
Fire Investigator Tom Bell estimated damages to the building at $60,000,
including about $15,000 in damages to the LaRosa apartment.
More than a dozen people, including families with young children, were
temporarily displaced because of water damage. American Red Cross workers
came to the scene to arrange for emergency housing. There were no injuries
reported.
Red Cross volunteer Russ Patterson, who also responds to animal distress
calls in the resort, cradled Bugsy in her arms after the fire. Scared and
shivering, the tabby looked distressed but appeared to be breathing
normally.
A paramedic gave the cat oxygen after he got out of the building, but how
he did that was a mystery to his owner Monday.
"I don't know how he got out," LaRosa said of the alley cat she adopted
last year after finding him hungry on the street outside the building.

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