Book Burning in Westmont Lights Up Evening Sky

It looked like a bonfire, with rising flames and smoke, lighting up the early evening sky Tuesday near the Strawbridge Elementary School in the Westmont section of Haddon Township. 

It turned out to be a book burning, started by a teen who said his grandparents were planning to move from the home at the corner of Strawbridge and Emerald avenues and suggested he burn dozens of books to get rid of them.

Vincent Bertett, 16, said he didn't know he couldn't burn books in an open-air fire in the small yard adjacent to the two-story colonial home there. Police and firemen who responded shortly before 5:30 p.m. immediately informed him and his mother, who stood near by, they could not, in fact, burn books, trash or anything else in their yard.

Jim Heckers, a lieutenant for the volunteer Westmont Fire Company No. 1, said the blaze is under investigation and a summons may be issued.

Meanwhile, neighbors gathered in the smoky haze in front of the house with more questions than answers.

"Book burnings, I thought, only happened in World War II," said a neighbor who initially gave his name but later asked not to be identified. "My first reaction is this is a little strange."

He and another neighbor, whose small children wanted to see the fire truck, the mother said, indicated the couple who live in the home are elderly.

"The wife told me a couple of years ago her husband was old and frail," the woman said. "I thought, 'so are you.'"