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City has a new attraction this holiday season. A train garden, featuring a town, carnival and mountains, is on display in His Praise Place PAGE 1B
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WORCESTER PREP WINTER SPORTS PREVIEW … PAGE 33A
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NOVEMBER 29, 2013
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PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS OLFERS
Fire erupts out of the door leading to the Shepherd’s Crook pantry in the St. Paul’s by-the-Sea rectory on Baltimore Avenue on Tuesday morning.
Tragedy at St. Paul’s rectory Bizarre fire claims two lives, including church pastor, the Rev. David Dingwall
(Nov. 29, 2013) A fire in the rectory of St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Ocean City on Tuesday morning claimed the lives of two victims, the church’s pastor, the Rev. David Dingwall, and John Sterner, the man who allegedly started the fire under bizarre and horrifying circumstances.
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A third victim was taken to the burn unit at Johns Hopkins’ Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore with lifethreatening injuries. Her condition as of Wednesday morning was listed as critical but stable, according to a hospital spokesperson. The 9:25 a.m. fire started when a man walked into the Shepherd’s Crook, the volunteer-run food and clothing pantry on the ground floor of the rectory, fully engulfed in flames. He had
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NANCY POWELL and ZACK HOOPES Staff Writers
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been seen outside just moments earlier lighting a cigarette. “He comes across the street lighting his cigarette, and everyone thinks he’s just walking over for a cup of coffee,” said one witness. “Thirty seconds later, he bursts in the door on fire.” The incident happened at a time when the facility was predictably busy, as the Shepherd’s Crook typically opens at 10 a.m. Hot coffee was typically
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See STERNER on Page 3A
PHOTO COURTESY ST. PAUL’S WEB SITE
The Rev. David Dingwall
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