Fire Rescue News- Two dead in Margate house fire

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Posted: Saturday, January 7, 2012 4:45 pm | Updated: 4:58 pm, Sat Jan 7, 2012.

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI and LYNDA COHEN, Staff WriterspressofAtlanticCity.com

A third occupant, Donna Saber, 54, made it outside safely, Housel said. Neighbors identified Saber as the homeowner. They said the Spinosis had been renting the top floors of the house from Saber.

“There was no way those old people could have survived. They were in the house too long. There was no oxygen,” said Anjelica Grebenschikoff, whose family lives on Union Street, directly behind the home that caught fire.

Firefighters rushed to the scene just before 2 a.m., but by then the house was already completely engulfed in flames and smoke, said Capt. John Barillo of the Margate Fire Department.

“There’s always a chance, but it was pretty bad,” Barillo said of the couple’s odds of surviving the raging blaze. “We fought the fire and got past the fire, but discovered the victims on the second floor.”

Autopsies will be performed on the Spinosis, Housel said.

Grebenschikoff, who was among the neighbors who witnessed the fire, said the blaze also killed a number of cats and rabbits owned by Saber.

“We all came over and it was completely in flames,”Grebenschikoff said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Arson Unit and the Margate Police Department.

“It was definitely a pretty intense fire,” said Sgt. Justin Furman of the Prosecutor’s Office.

The home was destroyed. Furman and other investigators were still at the house Saturday afternoon, combing through the charred remains for clues to help them determine the cause.

Barillo said it is believed to be the first fatal fire in Margate in more than 30 years. The 300 block of North Thurlow Avenue is a quiet street of well-kept homes a few blocks from the ocean. Neighbors expressed shock over the deaths.

“It’s a great neighborhood. But this horrible. It’s tragic,”said Janet Cooper, who lives on Pembroke Avenue, close to Thurlow Avenue.

Saber is also the owner of the Here Comes the Bride shop in Somers Point. She made news last summer when she reportedly refused to sell a wedding gown to a Middlesex County woman who was marrying her longtime female partner in New York, where same-sex marriages were legalized in 2011.

Contact Donald Wittkowski: 609-272-7258 DWittkowski@pressofac.com

Contact Lynda Cohen: 609-272-7257 LCohen@pressofac.com

Anyone with information is asked to call the Major Crimes Department at 609-909-7666.