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As guests paid $500 a ticket to listen to the new governor sing with his wife and the “B Street Band” in Newark, a group of congregants in South Orange had their minds elsewhere.
Ten years ago Tuesday night, one of the worst college fires in recent U.S. history raged through a freshman dorm at Seton Hall University, killing three youngsters and leaving several other people in the building with severe burns.
“It’s a date for all of us forever etched in the history of Seton Hall University,” said Monsignor Robert Sheeran, the school’s president. “It is a date forever etched in the heart of God Himself.”
The monignor cited a dogwood tree that students had planted in memory of Frank Caltabilota Jr. of West Long Branch, John Giunta of Vineland and Aaron Karol of Green Brook — three freshmen who died trying to escape the fire.
Two men admitted they lit a banner on fire that fell onto a couch, igniting the flames that took three lives and marred several others that Jan. 19, 2000 night.
The blaze began shortly before 4:30 a.m. on the third floor of Boland Hall’s north wing. The three freshmen who died never made it to the stairwells.
Dozens more people were injured, including Dana Christmas, of Paterson, who got sleeping students out of the building before she collapsed.
Sheeran read a letter from Christmas, who now is marrired with a young daughter. In it, she wrote: “That fire helped fine tune my vision about life and what God expects from us.”
Jennifer Nelson, a residence coordinator, gave the first reading.
But one of the most eloquent and memorable of the evening’s addresses came from Aaron Karol’s father, Joseph.
“It looks like we’ve finally reached the time for resolution and justice,” he said. “Let’s hope this is the year, and that God will fill our hearts with peace.”
In that light, the service had room for Sean Ryan and Joseph LePore, freshmen roommates who, after years of denial, admitted setting fire to the banner as a “prank.”
Ryan spent two years, and LePore less than three, in state custody after accepting plea deals.
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