Ok, so there is this article in the Inquirer that sounds like a publicist placed it. It talks about two employees of Riverwalk who were displaced by the fire because they were also residents. While I am glad they were o.k. and got their dog out, this profile bothers me. And I have to ask, since when is a guy called a "socialite"? Nevermind, I can answer that, NEVER. And these "heroes", did they think it was ok to live in a building with insufficient sprinklers? And if they were employed by the management company, it made sense for them to live there because wouldn't they have had reduced rent as an employee of the complex? C'mon...let's all get off the stupid bus and put on our big kid outfits.

I want to see how long politicians call for reforms in zoning and construction codes, etc, etc before they quietly crawl back under their rocks.

This fire is a wake up call to all those development hungry local politicians everywhere...including Lower Merion and Radnor Townships. This type of fire could happen again, couldn't it? Makes you wonder about letting Toll develop so much at the Merriam Estate, O'Neill in ROHO, and whichever the developer of the week is in Ardmore and letting quite so huge a development even be considered by Kimco for the Ruby's Lot, right? (And speaking of Kimco, stay tuned for next post)

Posted on Tue, Sep. 2, 2008
The "hero story" of Conshohocken fire
By Diane Mastrull
Inquirer Staff Writer

As fire jumped from a construction site to adjoining luxury apartments by the Schuylkill in Conshohocken late in the afternoon of Aug. 13, Karisa Nelson and Dan Kelly ran toward the flames.

With one four-story building already burning and another about to ignite, the two leasing agents banged on doors and activated alarms in a frantic race to evacuate the tenants of Riverwalk at Millennium.

When all apartments had been emptied, they comforted the nearly 400 newly homeless, then led them onto buses and rode along to a local fire station for food, medical aid, and guidance on filing insurance claims. If anybody needed a hotel room, Nelson and Kelly helped find one....."This is a hero story," said tenant Tony DeFazio, who watched Kelly in action. "People were clawing at him, [asking] 'What do we do?' At no time did he think of himself."

"They put the residents' interests before their own," said Michele Kearney, manager of the Riverwalk complex. "They've been incredible."

The Maryland-based Bozzuto Management Co. gave Nelson and Kelly time off to get their own affairs in order. Both returned to work last Monday - to an office with windows that overlook the fire-ravaged remains of homes they loved and lost.

Kelly, 26 and a native of Northeast Philadelphia, moved to Riverwalk with his girlfriend and her mother two years ago, about five months after he took a job in the leasing office as a sales and service assistant.

It was the perfect job for him, Kelly said, because "I'm kind of a socialite."