N.Y. woman donates car to Pinelands fire victim

BARNEGAT, N.J. - Thanks to a stranger's kindness, an 85-year-old Barnegat man who lost everything he owned in the Pinelands forest fire - including his dream car - has a new set of wheels similar to the one that burned.

A New York woman he never met gave Lester Balkie her 1988 Mercedes-Benz to replace his 1990 Mercedes, which last week's blaze destroyed.

Balkie was sitting outside the ruins of his trailer home Saturday with his son when a caravan of cars appeared, led by a Mercedes with a red bow on top.

"It's unbelievable," said Balkie, who could not fathom the generosity of a stranger.

Christine Desjardines-Fallica of Orange County, N.Y., was watching coverage of the fire on television last week when she saw footage of Balkie standing amid the rubble.

"I stopped what I was doing when I saw him," she told the Press of Atlantic City for yesterday's editions. "I immediately knew what I had to do. I called my husband and said, 'I'm giving away my car.' "

Her car was a refurbished 1988 Mercedes 420SEL.

Balkie's son, Don, was amazed. "She said there was something about my dad that reminded her of her father," Don Balkie said. "It's too much. But if someone wants to do something wonderful like this, how do you say no?"

The fire burned more than 17,000 acres of Pinelands in Burlington and Ocean Counties, forcing the evacuation of about 6,000 people. No serious injuries were reported. The New Jersey Air National Guard has said one of its F-16s dropped a flare into the tinder-dry Pinelands during a training mission, which may have been the cause of the blaze last Tuesday.