Teresa Sgaramella, who perished on Sunday morning in a fire at her Shady Lane home, was an avid gardener with a great sense of humor, according to neighbors.
“This is pretty horrible. We’re very devastated. This is sad,” said a woman from the neighborhood. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld, said her husband had visited with Sgaramella, who she described as in her early 80s and living alone, on Saturday to get a recipe for Italian almond cookies.
“She was doing fine,” the woman said.
The office of Morris County Prosecutor Fredric Knapp issued a brief statement that did not identify the victim:
“This is an active investigation. Personnel from the Morristown Police Department and the Morris County Prosecutors Major Crimes Unit have responded to the scene. Further information will be made available once the investigation concludes and the Medical Examiner has conducted a post-mortem examination,” the statement said.
It is believed to be Morristown’s first fire fatality since 2009, when a man died in a blaze on Logan Avenue.
Arriving soon after police, Morristown firefighters responded around 7 am on Sunday to find the rear of the house engulfed in flames. They found the woman in her living room, according to Fire Chief Robert Flanagan. Firefighters applied CPR, and then paramedics from nearby Morristown Medical Center took over, the chief said.
T.J. George, who usually sleeps in on Sundays, was awakened to the smell of smoke and the shouts of firefighters. He looked across his yard at the back of his neighbor’s home.
“It was burning brightly. Flames were coming out the sliding door, going up the back of the house,” George said.
He remembered Sgaramella as a “nice woman” who grew tomatoes in her garden, and liked to speak Italian with his wife, Alba.
Sgaramella and her late husband, Manny, both Italian immigrants, ran the A & L Men’s Shop in Morristown from 1976 until their retirement in 1989. Manny — the nickname for Emanuele — died in 2010.
The other neighbor said the widow remained independent with help from a part-time home health aide. The woman said Sgaramella did not like dogs, and Chief Flanagan said no pets were in the home.
The woman said her husband had done some work in the house, which was kept in “immaculate” condition. There was no Christmas tree, she said. A holiday wreath decorated the front of the house.
A number of electric space heaters were inside, according to Chief Flanagan, be he noted that the cause of the fire remains under investigation. The Morris County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation unit also was at the scene.
Also responding were firefighters from Morris Township and Madison, and EMTs from Atlantic Health.
Members of the victim’s family declined to be interviewed outside the house.
The woman from the neighborhood said Teresa Sgaramella sometimes shared zucchini, eggplant and basil from her garden.
“She was a great cook,” with a great sense of humor, the woman said. “We’re still in shock.”
