On December 23, 1976, the Lakewood Fire Department faced a tragic loss when two firefighters, Stanley Marks and Alex Latyshev, were killed in a hotel fire at the Hotel Allaben on Monmouth Ave and Fifth Street. The fire department was called to the scene at 1:19 AM for a working hotel fire. Firefighter Marks and Firefighter Latyshev, members of Junior Hose Company No 3, were part of a crew that advanced a hose line to the second floor when the conditions suddenly worsened and a flash over occurred, trapping the men. Marks’s body was found the next morning on the first floor, having fallen through the burned floor above. Latyshev was pulled to safety through a small window on the second floor but later died from burns on January 26, 1977.