Professor in critical condition following fire in house

Candles ignite Christmas tree.

By: Jennifer Potash
   A Princeton University economics professor sustained third-degree burns to much of his body Tuesday while carrying a burning Christmas tree from his Pine Street residence.
   David Bradford, 66, was found lying on the floor of his house by borough police officers at 12:45 a.m., police said.
   The fire erupted after 10 candles were lighted on the tree, police said.
   Mr. Bradford’s burns were sustained when he attempted to carry the flaming tree outside, police said. The responding officers gave Mr. Bradford oxygen until members of the Princeton First Aid & Rescue Squad arrived, police said.
   The squad transported Mr. Bradford to Capital Health System’s Fuld Campus, and he was later taken to Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. His condition remains critical, a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday.
   Borough fire inspectors and members of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office Arson Unit were involved in the investigation, police said.
   Mr. Bradford, who is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, served as a top economic adviser to former President George H.W. Bush.
   He also is affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., the American Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, and the New York University School of Law.
   From November 1991 to January 1993, he was a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. In the 1970s, he worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and helped to produce a text on tax reform that is considered a forerunner of the major U.S. income tax reform enacted in 1986, according to his biography posted on the university’s Web site.
   He also was a member of the Economic Policy Council of the State of New Jersey and served as vice chairman of the New Jersey State and Local Expenditure and Revenue Policy Commission. In 1988, he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the Railroad Retirement Reform Commission, which issued its report in 1990.