Last evening fire ravaged the home of Kevin and Karen Philbin. Their 13 year old son died in the fire. Karen is in critical condition in the Burn Center at Washington Hospital Center. She had 2nd degree burns over most of her body. Doctors seem to be holding back from any prognosis as to her survival. Kevin is also at Hospital Center. He did not suffer any serious burns but much smoke inhalation. I visited with Kevin this evening. He is quite alert, sitting up in bed and fully aware that Michael is dead and that Karen's situation is precarious. Kevin is one of the long-time Palisades Philbins. He has a brother Michael, another brother and a sister -- both live in the DC area. Another brother died several years ago as did their mother. All of the family attended OLV school. Kevin actually worked for a year at the school.
The three were in bed asleep when the fire broke out. There were no smoke detectors found at the scene of the fire during the investigations today.
Ironically my cousin, Jim, a retired firefighter from PG County and his son, Allyn, were near the scene of the fire and worked. Allyn, who is nearing his graduation from the PG County FD training school, worked on Michael, even using the electric paddles in an attempt to resuscitate him. He could not get his heart beating again. And Jim, who also had worked with the rescue/ambulance operations in PG County, worked on Karen when her body was brought out of the inferno. He was able to resuscitate her but only able to get a very weak pulse. Firefighters found Karen's body lying atop the family's dog, protecting the animal from the fire. Jim and Allyn did not realize it was the Philbin family until they were home. Allyn, shaken by his first experience of not succeeding in resuscitation, felt that he knew Michael. He pulled out the directory of Jesus the Divine Word Parish and found the Philbin's family picture. Obviously the pain was not easy for him. As one who has spent many years working with firefighters, let me stress what all of us have heard time and time again: make sure you have operative smoke alarms in your homes. Michael might be alive today and Karen might not be as damaged as she is were there smoke detectors in their home. Several firefighters were burned because of backdrafts when they broke open several windows seeking to gain entry into the one-story home. As parishioners, let us remember Michael in our prayers as well as Karen and Kevin. Fr. Dan Leary, my successor at Jesus the Divine Word, related to me this evening that Michael had been with him and a number of other young people for a retreat the previous week. Fr. Dan said it all seems so strange now but during the retreat Michael asked to talk with him. For one hour they talked and talked and talked ... One of the most unusual conversations Fr. Dan can remember. As Michael left the discussion, Fr. Dan could not get it out of his head has special the conversation had been ... very different from the usual 13 year old encounter.
