Photo: Paterson Retired Firefighters
On Oct. 18, 1984, a general alarm fire killed 15 people at the Alexander Hamilton Hotel in Paterson - and Louis Ponstingel was working the midnight to 8 a.m. shift as a Paterson fire dispatcher.
"The usual procedure is to look up the box number and address of the incident, the cross streets and the companies to respond," he said. "I for some reason pulled the whole card file and proceeded immediately to send the box."
Ponstingel's father, also named Louis, was the captain in charge of Engine 10 that night and "he and his men were credited with saving many lives," Ponstingel said by e-mail on Oct. 18, 2012. ""If anything there was an angel sending the box out expeditiously and, who knows, may have helped save someone."
