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Man dies in house fire 45 minutes after calling police

Mar 3, 2008 | Mark E. Vogler | The Eagle Tribune

Thomas Joseph Madden, who regularly called the Lawrence Police Department just to talk, made his final call last night - about 45 minutes before firefighters responded to the three-alarm blaze in which he perished.

Firefighters found Madden, 53, dead in his first-floor bedroom at 16 Royal St. in a fire that raged for more than two hours through all levels of the 21/2-story wooden frame building.

Madden's last call was a bizarre one. Lawrence Police Chief John Romero said he called one of the emergency lines, saying he wanted to be taken into custody by state police because city police were probably too busy.

But Romero said he didn't think the call was out of the ordinary, coming from the man who was "a regular caller" and called himself "Captain Madden."

"His calling is almost a nightly thing. He calls up to engage people in conversation. He's not nasty to them," Romero said last night.

"That he called about 45 minutes before the fire isn't unusual, because he normally calls the same time every night. He just calls to talk to people."

Romero said Madden left a message with him Wednesday, asking - without further explanation - that police check up on his wife when he goes in the hospital. The chief said Madden was actually referring to his live-in companion, Patricia Lapierre, who was working at the Wingate Nursing Home in Andover while their home was burning.

Besides Madden's body, officials said they discovered three dead dogs.

Officials said at least 16 people were displaced by the fire, 11 who lived on the second floor. Volunteers of the Trauma Intervention of the Merrimack Valley were at the fire scene to comfort those who lost most of their belongings and followed them to a temporary shelter set up by the American Red Cross of the Merrimack Valley.

State Police investigators assigned to the District Attorney's Office were on the scene, along with local fire investigators and city police detectives, as the probe was underway into the blaze that broke out shortly before 7:24 p.m. The fire was elevated to a two-alarm blaze four minutes later and to three-alarms at 7:41 p.m.

There were tense moments when firefighters were bracing themselves for more casualties. They worried about some of the residents not getting out. And two of their own - Lt. John Duxbury and Firefighter David Amero of Ladder 4 - got trapped on the third floor.

"We figured the explosion on the second floor made it worse up there and would make it difficult for them to find their way out," Fire Chief Peter Takvorian said, while watching his crews battle the fire.

"It took four to five minutes to find them. Four to five minutes seemed like four to five hours," Takvorian said.

"The deputy called "May Day," a rare operational mode to inform everybody that somebody is in danger. Our full focus is to locate and rescue those members who are trapped, a formal procedure adopted about eight years ago. Radio communication ceases except for the incident commander," the fire chief said.

Deputy Chief Brian Murphy said he knew that firefighters were in for a difficult night early, even though there was a quick response from Engine 8 crews, located about a block away on Ames Street.

"When the first firefighters arrived, two of the rooms on the first floor where fully involved, with flames blowing out the windows," Murphy recalled.

"We had some difficulties: the amount of fire that was involved, a report that people were trapped and then there was the explosion on the second floor - these all created challenges to fighting this fire," he said.

Firefighter Tim Boutin, the first firefighter to enter the building, got his hand burned and his helmet also caught fire as he went through the front door, according to Murphy. But Boutin got his hand wrapped up and went back out to battle the blaze.

Murphy said a major obstacle to overcome was the balloon frame structure that made the blaze a pesky one to knock down. "Balloon construction" is a common building technique in old houses this age. Long studs run all the way from the basement to the roof without fire breaks, funnelling fire and smoke through the walls, enabling flames to move quickly from floor to floor.

As firefighters were preparing to rescue the two firefighters who were trapped on the third floor, there was an explosion in a second-floor bedroom that knocked four firefighters to the ground. None of the men were seriously injured from the blast.

Investigators early this morning had still not determined a cause for the blast or the blaze. There was early speculation at the fire scene that the blaze may have been accidental, and that it originated in Madden's first-floor apartment, where the flames were heaviest when firefighters arrived.

The fire had not gotten into the bedroom in the rear of the first floor apartment where Madden's body was found. Officials speculate that he may have succumbed to smoke inhalation. But an autopsy will determine the official cause of death.

The medical examiner's office removed the body from a garage behind the house, at about 10 p.m. as firefighters seemed to have the blaze under control.

Police Detectives Sgt. Gene Hatem said Madden was well known by a number of police personnel who received his frequent telephone calls over the years.

"He's been around for a while," Hatem said.

"He's been having some problems lately that he'd call about. And he wasn't happy that the house was being sold,"

Hatem described Madden as somewhat of a citizen crime watcher. While he didn't belong to any neighborhood group, he would sometimes call out of concern for local crime issues.

Last night's blaze was the fifth major fire in the city since early last month.