Firefighter Dies On Night He Gets Engaged

July 24, 2002 -- On the night of July 3 at a fireworks celebration in New Jersey, a firefighter climbed the ladder of a borrowed fire truck, and used a bullhorn to propose to his girlfriend, who sat in a crowd below.

Thomas Stewart's voice cracked with emotion as he read a prepared speech.

"When I told you to expect the unexpected I wasn't kidding," Stewart said. "I love you with all my heart and hope you feel the same. You're my partner, you're my best friend. You're the one I want to spend the rest of my life with. They say there's one person for each of us in this world. And you're that person for me. Dan, will you marry me?"

Danielle Ruggierio, 24, said "yes." As Stewart bent to put the ring on her finger, his knees shook. To Ruggierio, that diamond shone brighter than any fireworks that night, and the celebration continued into the evening, when the couple was sipping champagne at home.

Then, in the morning hours of July 4, the call came in. Despite Ruggierio's protests that she had a "bad feeling" about it, Stewart raced off to fight a house fire in Gloucester City, N.J. where several children were trapped. He never came home.

Surprise Proposal

Stewart and Ruggierio, were together for five years, and everyone said they were a perfect match.

They met at the tanning salon that Stewart ran before he joined the Gloucester City Fire Department. The couple were best friends and great parents to their 1-year-old baby, Nicholas, but there was one thing missing — a marriage.

During their relationship they had gone back and forth over whether to marry, with Ruggierio at first, not wishing too, then Stewart shying away from the idea. Then, Stewart decided to propose, and came up with a sly plan to do it at the Camden County fireworks show.

Once there, he tried to throw Ruggierio off by acting as though he were annoyed that she, along with their friends and family, had shown up at the event before he had gotten off of work. But he secretly set off to retrieve the borrowed fire ladder.

Ruggierio and her sister were sitting on the grass wondering aloud where Tommy had gotten to, when they heard a voice over the loudspeaker, "How're you doing down there, Dan?"

A Bad Feeling

After the fire call came in that night, Ruggierio asked her new fiancé not to go, but Stewart insisted he must, saying there were children trapped inside the burning home. He told Ruggierio that she could come too, but they both knew she couldn't because of their sleeping son.

Ruggierio had never before told Stewart not to go out on a call. She had never worried about his safety, figuring that firefighting was his job, nothing more. But that night she had a bad feeling about it, she said

After arriving at the scene, Stewart called his fiancée and told her it was a terrible fire, the worst that he had seen, but he would stay with the crews outside.

Ruggierio knew, even then "he was lying in my face," she said. She wasn't angry, because she knew that if it were his baby in the house, he would have wanted someone else to save him.

After some time, Ruggierio did go to the scene. At every fire she'd ever seen, Stewart was either on the ladder, carrying a hose or on the roof with an axe. When he wasn't in any of those spots, she started panicking — especially since he hadn't called.

Stewart perished that night along with two firefighters from an assisting fire company: Mount Ephraim Chief James E. Sylvester, 31, and Mount Ephraim Deputy Chief John D. West, 41. The men had been trying to rescue 5-year-old Alexandra Slack and her twin sisters, Claudia and Colletta, 3., but the burning roof collapsed with eight firefighters inside.

Their colleagues dug through the burning debris, and five of the firefighters were rescued with only minor injuries, but Stewart and the other two were trapped.

It was the deadliest fire in New Jersey since a 1997 fire that also killed six people. Not since 1988 has as many as three firefighters died in a single blaze.

A Full Life

Ryan Stewart, Thomas' brother, said that he and his brother had spoken to each other that night. Each of the brothers told the other, " I love you," as was their custom after talking.

His brother left nothing important unsaid, Ryan Stewart said. He was especially glad that Thomas got a chance to propose to Ruggierio, "so she would never wonder how he felt," he said.

Ruggierio agreed that Thomas had been able to do everything he wanted to do in life before he died. He was someone who lived life 100 percent, she said.

"By the time he was 30, he had run three businesses, worked as a prison guard, met the love of his life and had a child," Ruggierio said.

He was also proud of the close relationship with his son. Sixteen-month-old Nicholas had just begun to cry when his dad left the room. It pleased Thomas Stewart, because when he was younger he only used to get upset when his mom slipped out of the room.

Little Nicholas went to the firehouse so frequently to see his father that he says "Daddy, Daddy," whenever he sees a fire truck.

He still does, his mom said.

A fund has been set up to help the families of Stewart, West and Sylvester, the men who died in the fire. The address is:Firefighter Fund, Commerce Bank, 180 North Black Horse Pike, Bellmawr, NJ 08031.