Michael ‘ Birdie Africa’ Ward, survivor of 1985 MOVE bombing

PHILADELPHIA — Michael Moses Ward, 41, who was known as Birdie Africa when he survived the 1985 MOVE bombing in Philadelphia, died last Friday aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean, officials said.

Ward was found unconscious in a hot tub on the Carnival Dream, said Craig Engelson, an investigator for the Brevard County Medical Examiner’s Office in Florida. The death appeared to be an accidental drowning, he said, but a toxicology screening will take about sixweeks.

Ward’s father, Andino, saidWednesday that he and his son were vacationing with relatives.

“It was a family cruise,” Ward said. “It was my 30th wedding anniversary and his sister’s 10th anniversary, and her in- laws’ 50th anniversary. So all of the kids treated us to an anniversary cruise.”

He said the ship had made stops in Mexico, Belize and the Dominican Republic.

The funeral will be private, he said, making it clear that the family remains reticent because of the events of May 13, 1985 — as were others directly or indirectly touched by the tragedy.

On that evening, after a daylong armed confrontation with members of the radical group MOVE, police dropped a satchel containing a bomb on the group’s fortified row house inWest Philadelphia.

The explosion sparked a blaze that city officials allowed to burn. When the fire was out, 61 homes were destroyed and 11 people, including five children were dead.

Ward was the only child to survive the bombing, and Ramona Africa the only adult. His mother, Rhonda Africa, was among those killed.

The image of an undersized, nearly naked, severely burned 13- year- old Birdie Africa being carried to safety as the MOVE home and the rest of the Osage Avenue block burned has remained an iconic image for nearly 30 years.

Ward had no contact with MOVE from then on.

It was only after the disaster, when he went to live with his father, that he became Michael Moses Ward.

In 1991, Ward and his father reached a settlement with the administration of Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr., which paid them $ 840,000 up front, with each receiving $ 1,000 per month for life.