Robert Spangenberg

On Thursday, February 10, 1983, I was in Allentown for the funeral of a family member. My father, Allentown firefighter, Robert Spangenberg, was anxious for me to return home to the Poconos because of the blizzard that was forecast. This blizzard was given the nickname the Megapolitan Blizzard and set a 24-hour snowfall record in Allentown with 25 inches of snow; temperatures were in the low 20s to upper teens and wind speeds were in the upper 20s.

In the evening of Friday, February 11, 1983, my mother phoned me; she was distraught because she heard on the fire scanner that a firefighter was down. She already knew that my father's Engine 6 had been dispatched. It was not long before I got the call that my father had been taken to the Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown. We had no information about his condition.

A nurse at the Sacred Heart Hospital gently told me that my father had been in cardiac arrest and even though CPR was performed at the scene it was probably ineffective for a long period of time and my father's brain had been without oxygen. At the hospital Dad was kept alive by machines the made his heart beat and pushed air into his lungs. I was aghast when I saw this and I am distraught as I am writing it.

The building where the fire occurred was at 615 N. 2nd St. and near Dad's Hibernia fire station. We were told that because of the blizzard other fire trucks were unable to reach the scene and that my father was alone in the burning building for a long time before help arrived. We were also told that Dad carried out an elderly resident of a neighboring building that was endangered by the fire. Sometime after help arrived and the firefighters were retreating from the burning building my father, Robert Spangenberg, collapsed at the scene. CPR was performed and my father was transported to Sacred Heart, where I saw him hours later.

My father's condition deteriorated over the next several days and finally a resident told us that anything we recognized as humanness in Robert Spangenberg was gone. My mother, sister, and I decided to discontinue medical treatment and early in the morning of Sunday, February 27, 1983, my father Robert Spangenberg died.

Having been told that the fire was arson, we expected a prosecution, but soon there was silence. After a while we asked what happened with the case but we could not get information because apparently the evidence from the fire was inadmissible. Inadmissible! From a fire that was believed to be arson and killed a firefighter! Wasn't this a felony murder?

Perhaps it is time for a state or federal agency to take a fresh look at this case; forensics has come a long way since 1983. The insurance company for the property was involved in a civil suit; you can read the account of that trial in the archives of the Morning Call for March 28 and April 2, 1986 with the verdict of that suit in the Morning Call archives of April 3, 1986. If an insurance company could find evidence of arson, why couldn't Allentown?

Cui bono? Who benefited? Certainly not my father, who never got to see his grandchildren grow up. Dad wanted to retire and go to community college; he never got the chance. Dad wanted to travel; he never got the chance. How about the person who set the fire? Did that person have time to vacation with family members? Did the arsonist share important events in family members' lives? Robert Spangenberg couldn't; he was put in a box and lowered into an 8 by 3 foot plot. No hopes, no dreams, no family vacations.

Even worse than the City of Allentown's inaction on this murder, was the treatment that my family got from the United States government. Because my father had a heart attack, even though it was at a fire scene, my mother was denied the Public Safety Officers' Benefits. We were unaware of the federal benefit and the reason for its denial until it was too late and the time for an appeal was past. Unfortunately, the City of Allentown never appealed this denial on our behalf. They never presented the case of Dad being alone for a long time at a fire scene during a blizzard; they never presented evidence that the extreme cold under which my father was working has deleterious effects on the heart and circulatory system. They did nothing.

Robert Spangenberg was a World War II United States Navy veteran and a 35 year veteran of the Allentown Fire Department. He gave much more to his country and city than they gave back to him.