In the early morning hours of August 24, 1985, flames engulfed Daniel Dougherty’s two-story row house in Northeast Philadelphia, killing his sons Daniel, 4, and John, 3.

Dougherty, the lone survivor, told authorities in the wake of the fire that he was asleep on the building’s first floor when the blaze broke out and couldn’t get to the second floor to rescue the boys from the bedroom they shared.