The Firehouse Yak: John Lewis & Robert Moran - The Jersey Guys Reflect on Journey to Firehouse Hall of Fame
Peter Matthews sits down with longtime Firehouse contributors John J. Lewis Jr. and Robert Moran, who have been named Firehouse’s Hall of Fame Class of 2025. The two reflect on their fire service careers, Lewis retiring as a lieutenant and Moran as a fire chief.
The two, known as The Jersey Guys, entered the fire service Northern New Jersey and had lengthy careers in both volunteer and career fire services as well as two decades of instructing and writing.
From close calls and the incident that led them to begin teaching firefighters, to advice for new firefighters, those seeking promotions and rising to the rank of chief, they share nuggets from across their career while looking back on major incidents and milestones with their time at Firehouse.com.
Peter Matthews | Editor-in-Chief/Conference Director
Peter Matthews is the conference director and editor-in-chief of Firehouse. He has worked at Firehouse since 1999, serving in various roles on both Firehouse Magazine and Firehouse.com staffs. He completed an internship with the Rochester, NY, Fire Department and served with fire departments in Rush, NY, and Laurel, MD, and was a lieutenant with the Glenwood Fire Company in Glenwood, NY. Matthews served as photographer for the St. Paul, MN, Fire Department and currently is a photographer for the Fort Worth, TX, Fire Department.
Robert Moran
Robert Moran served as fire chief of the Brewster, MA, Fire Rescue Department from 2010–2024. Prior to that, he served 26 years with the Englewood, NJ, Fire Department, retiring in 2010 after 12 years as chief of department. Moran holds a master’s degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University, is a certified public manager, and has a Chief Fire Officer (CFO) designation from the Center for Public Safety Excellence. He serves as an adjunct instructor for Kean University and the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety and lectures at numerous regional and national fire service conferences. Along with his training partner, John Lewis, Moran writes the back page of the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs Size-Up magazine and operates Jersey Guys Fire Service Training.
John J. Lewis
John J. Lewis is a retired lieutenant from the Passaic, NJ, Fire Department, formerly assigned as the training and safety officer. He remains active in fire service as a 20-plus-year instructor at the Bergen County, NJ, Fire Academy and as an adjunct instructor for Kean University/New Jersey Division of Fire Safety. Along with his partner, Robert Moran, Lewis has written and presented training programs throughout the country and co-authored many articles for fire service publications.
