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An Unfilled
Void

Two Jewish families
mourn the loss of
relatives who died in the
crash of Comair Flight
3272.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

E

Striking Twice

Above: Firefighters
rush to contain a
fire in the Northgate
Apartments
complex.

Below: Rosa
Friedlund weeps as
her apartment
bums.

In a stroke of bad luck, a second major fire dislocates
Russian Jewish families at Northgate Apartments.

Richard
Steam: Loved
his family.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

y any account, Rosa Fried-
lund has not had an easy
life.
She left her home in
Chernobyl in the Ukraine
in 1989, three years after
the massive nuclear acci-
dent. Suffering from cancer and
afflicted by religious persecution
that swelled after the demise of
the Soviet Union, Ms. Friedlund
and her husband, Berko, fled the
country with two suitcases and
all the treasures they could cram
inside them.
In the United States, she
found freedom, safety and treat-
ment for her disease. Last year,
she completed her dream by at-
taining citizenship and proudly
hung the certificate upon her
wall.
But whatever happiness she
was able to regain when she left
her homeland went up in smoke
last week as the Friedlund apart-
ment was destroyed — along
with 15 others in the Northgate
Apartments in Royal Oak Town-

B

ship that were was consumed by
flames or damaged by smoke.
"I can't believe this," she said
last Thursday as she stood in a
puddle outside the burning build-
ing. Thick smoke pushed her fur-
ther from the building, into a
group of friends who had come to
console her.
According to Chief Tyrone
Scott of the Royal Oak Town-
ship Fire Department, the cause
of the two-alarm blaze is un-
known although it is believed to
have started in one of the sec-
ond-floor units. The investiga-
tion into the cause of the fire,
which started at about 4 p.m.
Jan. 9, is expected to be com-
plete within the month.
"It was a substantial blaze
[because] it was winter weath-
er and we had a nice wind blow-
ing," Chief Scott said, adding
that units from Troy and Detroit
assisted and a fire fighter from
Highland Park volunteered.
"But I am happy to report there
were no injuries and no deaths

and the building was saved."
The blaze, causing extensive
damage to the building in the
rear of the complex on Greenfield
Road and 1-696, was the second
major fire at the apartment
group in three years. The last, on
Jan. 6, 1994, displaced 10 Russ-
ian Jewish families.
The fire victims were aided on

ve "Chick" Berthiaume was
always close to her baby
brother, Richard Steam.
'When I was younger, I
called him my baby boy," she
said. "I got in trouble for it be-
cause he wasn't my baby boy, but
there was always that special
connection."
Perhaps because of that tie,
she felt something terrible had
happened when she watched last
Thursday evening's coverage of
the plane crash in a Monroe
County field. She immediately
called Mr. Steam's wife, Cheryl,
who confirmed that Richard was
flying in that night but, not to
worry, Richard always took
Northwest Airlines when travel-
ing.
Later that night, Ms. Berthi-
aume's fear was confirmed. Mr.
Steam, a passenger on Comair
Flight 3272 out of Cincinnati, had

site by the American Red Cross,
which set up in the community
house of the apartment complex.
Jewish Family Service and Re-
settlement Service offered re-
placement furnishings and
clothing.
All of the families dislocated
by the fire have been relocated

STRIKING page 20

perished in the fiery accident.
"I can't believe he is gone," she
said.
Mr. Steam, a native Detroiter
who had moved to Whitmore
Lake after his marriage five years
ago, was one of two local Jewish
passengers who died. Teri
Muskovitz, a West Bloomfield N j y,
resident and a congregant at 0 ,
Adat Shalom Synagogue, also —
perished in the crash that killed
29. Both were buried this morn-
ing.
At the Steam family home, the <,
family has gathered in the days
since the crash to plan memorial <,
services as well as to remember
Richard.

VOID page 20

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