Fire kills man, 52, in cluttered rowhouse

In a house filled with debris, the one thing hoarder Charles Ingram didn't have was a smoke alarm, fire officials said yesterday.

Ingram, 52, even may have been trapped by his own clutter as he tried to escape the 6:30 a.m. fire that took his life yesterday at his home on Felton Street near Media, in West Philadelphia.

After putting out the one-alarm blaze, firefighters found Ingram in the kitchen of his rowhouse. It appeared that he was trying to escape through a back door that had been blocked from the inside by a lawn mower, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said.

Firefighters were forced to break down the door and inside they found "almost everything you could think of," including hedge trimmers, magazines, clothing, books, chainsaws and other sundry objects - but not a smoke alarm, Ayers said.

Ingram was the city's 26th fire death of the year, up from 23 at this time last year, Ayers said.

In a separate incident yesterday, a veteran firefighter was injured by falling debris after a blaze was extinguished yesterday afternoon at a house on Arbor Street near Allegheny Avenue, in Kensington.

The firefighter, who has been on the force for more than 15 years, was in stable condition at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Ayers said. No one else was injured in the fire, Ayers said.