PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — May 13, 1985 lives on as one of the darkest days in Philadelphia’s history. Thirty-five years ago, police dropped a bomb on the MOVE compound along Osage Avenue.
For two journalists on the ground, that day still sits with them.
For more than 24 hours, longtime WCAU photojournalist Pete Kane was rolling his camera from inside a house about a block from the MOVE compound, reporting live over a landline back to veteran TV and radio reporter Larry Kane.
The explosions generated mass confusion.
“Explosions from where?” Larry Kane asked Pete Kane on live TV.
“It sounds like it’s coming from the MOVE house,” Pete Kane responded.
The photojournalist, who was a new dad at the time, said it was like being “in a war zone.”
“The bullets were whizzing by, I could hear, ‘pow, pow.’ And all I could think about was my 3-week-old son, Chris,” he said.
Before the air attack, Pete Kane recalled taking a brief recess to go downstairs and get something to eat.
Then he felt the house shake.
The bomb drop gave way to then-Philadelphia Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor’s words, “let the fire burn.”
“OK, Pete, can you see any movement at all on the part of Philadelphia firefighters, have they moved in yet?” Larry Kane asked.
“No, Larry, they have not moved in yet,” he responded.
KYW Newsradio’s Paul Kurtz was working for WIP Sportsradio at the time. While conducting a live shot over the phone for the network, he saw the helicopter whizz overhead.
“And then a few minutes later, I heard this absolutely thunderous explosion. It was so powerful. I also felt it. It actually shook the ground beneath my feet,” Kurtz recalled.
Six adults and five children under the age of 13 were killed.
“Knowing the kids were in the house, the bomb was dropped. These kids did nothing wrong,” Pete Kane said.
“No one can possibly survive if they are still in that building, is that what you are saying?” Larry Kane asked him on TV.
“It would be hard, Larry. Right now this place is fully involved,” he responded.
It took about 45 minutes before firefighters started to spray it with water, he said.
Thick black smoke filling the air, flames licking the sky, debris raining down — Pete Kane still can’t shake those images from his mind.
“It’s something that won’t go away,” he said.
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