Joseph Hall, Phila. Fire Dept. captain
One morning in March 1968, Joseph A. Hall was riding on a bus from his Northeast Philadelphia home to his job as a city firefighter at 16th and Parrish Streets.
One morning in March 1968, Joseph A. Hall was riding on a bus from his Northeast Philadelphia home to his job as a city firefighter at 16th and Parrish Streets.
When the bus stopped on Frankford Avenue near Oxford Street, Mr. Hall and Vincent Lehman, a fire battalion chief riding the same bus, saw flames shooting from a three-story rowhouse on Oxford.
Before other firefighters arrived, newspaper stories reported at the time, the two men rescued two children who were about to jump from a third-floor window.
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Vassallo, startled by a faulty electrical heater on the second floor, the cause of the fire, had led the rest of their seven children to the street.
But Judith, 11, and her younger sister, Carol, were trapped on the third floor.
"The two firemen got to the second-floor landing," one paper reported, "but were driven back by heat, smoke and noxious fumes when they attempted to reach the third floor."
So, dropping to hands and knees, they closed a door to the second-floor bedroom, the source of the fire, and headed upstairs.
"With Lehman in front and Hall creeping along behind," the men found the third-floor room where the trapped girls were screaming.
"Finally, I reached out and grabbed one of the girls," Lehman said. "I passed her back to Hall and grabbed the other one.
"Then," he told the newspaper, "we felt our way back along the bed, found the door and carried them downstairs, talking to them all the time to calm their fears."
On Aug. 15 of that year, Mr. Hall's daughter Geri Kotch said this week, the Fire Department gave each man its Distinguished Service Award.
The men also each earned a gold medal from Optimists International, presented in the Mayor's Reception Room in City Hall.
On Wednesday, May 11, Mr. Hall, 76, of Villas, N.J., who retired in 1992 as a Philadelphia Fire Department captain, died of cancer at Cape May Regional Medical Center in Cape May Court House.
Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Hall had to drop out of Northeast High School after 10th grade to support his family, his daughter said, because his father could find only part-time work as a truck driver.
In June 1959, Mr. Hall graduated from the Philadelphia Fire Academy, became a firefighter, and, from 1961 to 1963, served as an Army firefighter before returning to his civilian career.
For more than 10 years, his daughter said, Mr. Hall worked on days off for a North Philadelphia pet supply firm.
He became a lieutenant in December 1974 and captain in January 1978, according to department records.
Phil McLaughlin, a Fire Department deputy commissioner from 1991 to 1995, had known Mr. Hall since they joined the department in 1959.
And though they worked at different firehouses, McLaughlin said, they often were at fire scenes together.
"He was a very likable man," McLaughlin said. "Very smart. Very intelligent. And he was well-respected by the men."
Mr. Hall and McLaughlin were also longtime residents of Villas and members of the Villas Fishing Club, where, he said, they fished for bluefish.
Besides his daughter, Mr. Hall is survived by his wife of 54 years, Geraldine; sons Joseph G. and Gerald; daughters Denise Bryan and Kristine Hall-DePaul; a brother; two sisters; 14 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A life celebration was set from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, at Evoy Funeral Homes, 3218 Bayshore Rd., North Cape May, before an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass at St. John of God Church, 680 Townbank Rd., North Cape May. Interment is to be in Cape May County Veterans Cemetery.
Donations may be sent to Local 22 Charitable Trust for Widows Fund, 415 N. Fifth St., Philadelphia 19123.
Condolences may be offered to the family at evoyfuneralhome.com.
610-313-8134@WNaedele