Man also accused of attempting to lure boy, 6, from park

Victim knocked 4 feet by powerful firework

LEONIA — On Jan.30, tragedy struck when Harriet Townsend, a 65-year-old borough resident and her 34-year-old daughter Ruth Townsend lost their lives in a five-alarm fire on Maple Street.

LEONIA - With the fire chief and a long-serving lieutenant facing removal from the department, and two other officers looking at lengthy suspensions, the bor¬ough's 116-year-old volunteer fire company is facing not only the prospect of a loss of leadership, but also a bitter struggle for con¬trol of its future.

LEONIA €” The Leonia Peace Vigil held a reception for students who participated in the Peace Projects for the Children of Leonia at the borough library Feb. 9, allowing them to showcase their essays and art work on peace.

Harriette and Ruth Townsend died as they lived – together. “You didn’t see one without the other,” recalled the Rev. Timothy Daughett of the Greater Bethel United Holiness Church. The two women died last week in an early-morning blaze that destroyed the Leonia home where their family had lived for generations.

A Superior Court judge has reversed the Borough Council’s appointment of several high-ranking fire company officers, who were named to their posts last month over firefighters’ objections.

Funeral services will be held Wednesday for Harriette Townsend and her daughter Ruth, who died last week in an early-morning blaze at their Maple Street home.

Messages were scrawled on brightly-colored poster board for the crossing guard that died in a house fire.

The roof of a what appears to be a two family house at Maple and Spring streets has collapsed as firefighters attempt to douse a fire that erupted this morning.