BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer
JEFF GRANIT staff A memorial was assembled earlier this week on the Deerfield Road front lawn of 5-year-old Erik Sturgis, who perished Saturday during a fire at his Sayreville home. His mother, Christina, was murdered in 2001. A 5-year-old boy died in a fire at his Sayreville home Saturday after his father went to work and left him home alone.
Police and firefighters arrived at 14 Deerfield Road minutes after receiving a 911 call from a neighbor who noticed smoke billowing from the home at 11:21 a.m. Upon their arrival, the first floor of the single-family residence was engulfed in flames, and the living room window had been blown out.
Neighbors and authorities were unaware that Erik Sturgis, who lived in the house with his father, Kevin, 31, was home at the time because there was no vehicle parked in the driveway.
Sayreville firefighters brought the flames under control and found Erik on the floor of an upstairs bedroom, according to Middlesex County Executive Assistant Prosecutor Thomas J. Kapsak. The boy was unresponsive, officials said, and attempts to revive him by first aid personnel were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, according to Sayreville Fire Chief Stamatis Bratsano.
Above, a woman jogs by the boarded-up Sturgis home on Deerfield Road in Sayreville Tuesday. At right, debris hangs from the home’s carport, and a child’s chair can be seen in the backyard. Middlesex County Medical Examiner Frank Di Carlo performed an autopsy Sunday, attributing the cause of death to be carbon monoxide poisoning from inhalation of smoke and soot particulates, according to a press release from Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan. Erik did not suffer from any burns, as the fire never reached the second floor.
Kevin Sturgis was at work at the Wakefern Food Corp. warehouse in Jamesburg at the time of the fire, according to Kapsak. The boy had been left home alone for at least three hours before the fire started, he said.
The fire appeared to have started accidentally on a sofa in the living room of the home, authorities said. The exact cause had not been determined, but Kapsak said there is no evidence suggesting electrical malfunction.
PHOTOSBY JEFF GRANIT staff No charges had been filed against Kevin Sturgis, but Kapsak said authorities are considering that possibility. Investigators were still interviewing neighbors, family members and employees of Wakefern Food Corp. as part of an investigation into the fire, and Kapsak said more information may be available on Friday.
Witnesses told investigators that Erik appeared to have been well cared for, according to the press release from Kaplan’s office.
Next-door neighbor Mary Rhatican told the Suburban that Erik and her 10-year-old son Sean O’Grady played together often. Her son is the one who dialed 911 when he saw smoke at the Sturgis’ home Saturday.
Rhatican said she babysat for Erik during a two-month period but had to stop after her mother had a stroke.
“Kevin was a great father,” Rhatican said. “If anything he was overprotective. It is unbelievable to all of us in the neighborhood that this happened.”
She said Kevin Sturgis had been working nights, when it is difficult to find a babysitter. She said he was considering selling the house and moving to North Carolina where he has relatives. He ultimately decided to stay and had his hours changed to day shifts.
“Now I feel bad that I stopped watching Erik, but I had no choice. I had a sick mother and it was hard with school,” she said.
“I want you to know [Kevin] is a good man. He did care a lot about his son,” Rhatican said. “It is just shocking.”
The boy’s short life was marked by tragedy early on. His mother, Christina, was killed in a murder-suicide in Mansfield, Warren County, in 2001, just months after she and Kevin divorced, according to the Star Ledger. Her boyfriend, James Hoehman, reportedly shot Christina, who was 22, and then killed himself.
Erik and his father had since been living alone in Sayreville, and Kevin reportedly struggled to find caretakers to watch his son when he went to work.
Erik was attending kindergarten this year at Arleth Elementary School.
School Principal Timothy Byrne said he knew Erik personally and recalled the boy as having an active imagination.
“Erik was very much a fun-loving boy, a typical kindergarten boy who loved adventure, loved excitement. He thought there was a buried treasure in the playground,” Byrne said.
A crisis team assisted school guidance counselors in helping faculty, staff and students cope with the tragedy earlier this week, according to Byrne.
“All of us here at Arleth School join the community of Sayreville in our grief about the tragic loss of Erik. We are certainly going to miss him and we pray for him and his family in this time of great tragedy,” he said.
At Monday’s Borough Council Meeting, Councilman Dennis Grobelny suggested setting up a fund for Erik, but details were not yet available.