Jacqueline Montanaro died after attempting to rescue Madelyn R. Montanaro from burning, Hazlet, New Jersey, January 13, 2023. Madelyn, 6, was asleep in her second-floor bedroom in her family’s two-story house when flames broke out in the first-floor living room. Her mother, Montanaro, 40, federal supervisory border patrol and customs officer, was asleep in another second-floor bedroom with Madelyn’s father, who alerted her to the fire. Montanaro and the father shouted for Madelyn and her older sister to get out of bed as the husband cleared a path at the staircase for them to exit. Montanaro exited with the sister, soon followed by the father, as flames and smoke intensified. Realizing Madelyn was still inside, the father re-entered, but dense smoke and blistering heat from nearby flames forced him back outside. After he told Montanaro they would need to wait for firefighters, she re-entered the burning house through the front door and ascended the stairs into the dense smoke. She was later found at a point near the top of the stairs, and unresponsive. Madelyn was later found unresponsive in her bedroom. Montanaro and Madelyn both were removed from the house by firefighters and were taken by ambulance to a hospital, where their vital signs were re-established and they were placed on life support. Both were removed from life support and died the following day, with authorities attributing their deaths to smoke inhalation and thermal burns.
10448-Obituary
Jacqueline Montanaro, 40, of Hazlet died on Saturday, January 14th as a result of a fire at their home.
She was born in Perth Amboy and raised in Fords. Jackie graduated from Woodbridge High School in 2000 and was a 2004 graduate of the University of Delaware with a Political Science Degree, with a concentration in International Studies. In 2007, she joined the Customs and Border Protection Agency at John F. Kennedy Airport, later working at Newark Liberty International Airport. She had risen to the rank of Supervisory Officer.
Jackie enjoyed sharing good wine and good food with family and friends. She was a ballroom dancer, and loved to dance Salsa and Merengue. Jackie loved to travel and, recently returned with her family from a trip to Italy, where they visited Rome and then went south to the Puglia region visiting her husband Will’s family in Polignano a Mare.
Her daughter, Madelyn Rose, died on Saturday afternoon as a result of the tragic fire at their home.
Surviving is her husband, William Montanaro; their daughter, Elena; her parents, Debra and Joseph Autera, and Fred and Jenny Shubert; her grandmother Dolores Pinelli; her sister Marisa Autera and her fiancé Timothy Kinsey; her brothers Anthony Autera and Jason Shubert and his wife Jessy; her Uncle Robert and Aunt Margaret, Her Uncle Bruce and Kremena, her Aunt Vickie, father-in-law and mother-in-law Raffaele and Linda Montanaro and many cousins.