WESTWOOD, N.J.—Some readers might remember when this event took place. Maybe you heard or felt the blast. The date was April 4, 1955. Mr. and Mrs. Dale Visage were living on the ground floor of a two-family house at 264 David Hooper Place in Westwood, along with four children: two girls, ages 8 and 6, and two boys, ages 3 and 9 months. A young married couple, each 21 years old, lived in the unit upstairs.
Before dawn, Mrs. Visage woke her husband to tell him she smelled gas. Dale Visage was about halfway down the basement steps when the house exploded.
The blast blew the wall out and threw the 30-year-old father into the yard, knocking him unconscious. When he came to, he saw that the explosion collapsed the house; the first floor, where his family lived, was now in the cellar, and the second story was at ground level. The structure was in flames.
Despite his injuries, he was relentless in searching for his children, whom he believed were still inside the burning house. Like a man possessed, he had to be dragged out of the fire by his neighbors, who had already rescued the youngsters. They were eventually able to convince the man that all of his children were safe.
In the process of searching for his family, Mr. Visage sustained third-degree burns on his head, face, arms, chest, and legs; his hair was burned off.
There was plenty of bravery in Westwood on that early April morning. A neighbor, Colin Houston, had gone into the burning house and rescued the Visages’ baby boy. He lifted the infant out of a window and handed him to his 10-year-old son, who had run across with his father. Another neighbor, Fred Molls, freshly out of bed, had run shoeless into the smoking wreckage to search for occupants. He suffered burns to his feet and stepped on a nail that was sticking out of a fallen beam.
Mrs. Visage, the children, and the young couple upstairs (who had an easier time getting out, as the blast put them at ground level) all escaped without life-threatening injuries. The four children were taken to Holy Name Hospital for treatment for burns and cuts.
The blast and subsequent fire left nothing but a tangled mass of charred beams and the roof. The force of the explosion damaged the house next door and blew the roof gutters off two houses across the street. The blast rattled windows within a two-mile area.
In a hastily called public meeting, a group of borough residents organized the Westwood Families Disaster Fund, which raised several thousand dollars. The younger couple eschewed any financial help from the fund, as they said insurance would cover their losses. The Visages, however, had no insurance, and had lost every item they owned. Both families had been renting.
The explosion took place less than a week before Easter. Westwood Girl Scouts put together Easter baskets and presents for the Visage children.
Mr. Visage required a long hospital stay, but he did recover. The family had moved out of the area by 1956.