Three Children Rescued, Three Firemen Injured

Three small children were rescued Monday after almost being trapped in their smoke-filled apartment, while in another blaze, two firemen were injured when caught in a shower of broken glass. The children were rescued by their father, David Kaluhiokaleni, 27, after he made his way up a stairway heavy with smoke and carried them from the third-floor bedroom of their home at 216 State street where they were taking their afternoon naps. Kaluhiokaleni, employed by the Riverside Metals Co., told police at about 1.30 p. m. and went downstairs to the apartment of his wife's sister, Mrs. Cora Pantella, for lunch. Leads 2 to Safety At about 2:15 p.m., smoke was detected and Kaluhiokaleni groped his way up the stairway to the room where his children were sleeping. He led the two eldest down the stairway and carried the youngest. Firemen, under the direction of Battalion Chief Harold Gick, controlled the first fire. Chief Gick said it apparently started in the mattress of a bed adjoining the one in which the three children were sleeping. Two firemen were injured while fighting a blaze that gutted a second-floor bedroom and damaged a gift shop at 1073 Haddon avenue. 3 Companies Fight Blaze Traffic was detoured off Haddon avenue for more than an hour while two truck companies and one engine company battled the flames. The injured firemen were Capt. John Hensen, 40, commander of Truck Co. No. 2, and Ladderman James Creato, 52, of the same company. Hensen suffered a cut on the back of his left hand that required two stitches at West Jersey hospital. Creato was admitted to the hospital for treatment of a puncture wound of his right foot, suffered when he stepped on a nail. The injured fire captain, who was caught in a shower of glass when a window exploded from the heat. The gift shop is operated by Mrs. Etta Kocher, 51. With her husband, Fred, general sales manager for a Philadelphia fruit produce company, she occupies the apartment above. The two-story brick and frame building was vacant when firemen arrived. They had been summoned by a passerby who saw clouds of smoke pouring from the upstairs bedroom window. According to Battalion Chief Winfield Leviseur, the flames started in the upstairs apartment, scorched the walls of an adjacent bedroom, and were threatening the gift shop below. One Room Is Total Loss One bedroom was a total loss, the other sustained water and smoke damage, and the gift shop was damaged by water. Chief Leviseur said his men were hampered by the intense heat from the blazing mattress. He was unable to estimate damages, but said the cause was "possibly a careless smoker." Mrs. Kocher and her son, Sgt. Donald Kocher, 23, were away making a bank deposit at the time of the fire. They returned at the height of the blaze. Sgt. Kocher, on a 20-day furlough from the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, said he was in orders to report to Officers' Candidate School at Fort Sill, Okla. In addition to Truck Company 2, the companies that responded to the alarm were Engine Company 8 are located at 6th and Kaighn avenues; Engine Company 7 at Mt. Ephraim and Kaighn avenues.