Holmdel's sole volunteer fire company is getting a boost in manpower, whether it likes it or not.
On Thursday, the Township Committee voted unanimously to allow a second all-volunteer fire company to officially join ranks with Holmdel's current emergency response fleet. Present firefighters aren't happy about the merger but now is not the time to complain, said township officials, who chided the firemen for not participating in the merger process earlier.
According to Fire Chief Ron Pontrelli, the merger is a mistake for a variety of reasons, including the new company's lack of experience.
"They have no experience fighting a fire," Pontrelli said after the decision, noting most of the roughly 35 new volunteer applicants are in their teens or early 20s.
"I'm afraid someone's going to get hurt, if not killed," Pontrelli said.
The merger, as it's written into law, states that the town would be divided into territories with Fire Company I responding to one area and Fire Company II responding to the other.
Pontrelli, who has served as Holmdel's fire chief or deputy chief for the past 33 years, suggests that the new company get on-the-job training before entering burning buildings.
"Let them respond along with us," Pontrelli said. "When we get a new firefighter right out of the academy, we don't just let him go in to fight a fire. You have to work your way into it."
Pontrelli, who moved to Aberdeen 10 years ago, is also critical of the law's new residency requirements.
"What makes a resident a better firefighter?" Pontrelli said. "We should be treated equally."
Once enacted, nonresident volunteers would be classified 'inactive' or 'associate,' even if they currently respond to fires. A volunteer living in Hazlet or Aberdeen would then lose out on their federal government benefits, Pontrelli said, for things such as death and injury coverage.
"Do you have to be a resident to be a Holmdel cop?" asked Pontrelli. "No."
Firefighter Victoria Domena, of Aberdeen, has been a Holmdel firefighter for eight years. A single mother, Domena said she is worried about her young child not receiving benefits in the event she dies while battling a fire.
So why didn't the chief speak up at the public hearing?
"It wouldn't have made any difference," Pontrelli said afterwards.
"I'm considered a rowdy because I speak up for what's right for the fire company," Pontrelli added.
The township disagrees.
"This is sour grapes," said Township Administrator Christopher Schultz.
According to Schultz, the whole thing can be boiled down to a long-standing political feud between the fire company and town hall. Schultz, a volunteer fireman in Medford Lakes in Burlington County, noted he inherited the ongoing schism when he came to work for Holmdel about four years ago.
"Part of the issue is I have a fire background," Schultz said. He added that he often receives calls and anonymous letters from people complaining about the inside dealings of the fire company.
Sitting in his office after the meeting, Schultz printed out a recent report from the township's insurance company calling the fire company's standard operating procedures, or SOPs, "vague" and "subjective." Schultz said he's been asking the fire chief for updated SOPs for two years but has still not received the much-needed data. Without it, Schultz said a merger is necessary to protect the township in terms of insurance liability, and more importantly, to provide adequate fire protection for residents.
"I don't play games," Schultz said of the rift.
During the public hearing, Schultz became visibly annoyed when Holmdel Firefighter Robert West criticized the new law, asking that some parts of it be altered.
"For the record," Schultz said, "the fire department was invited to many meetings and they declined."
He added, "This isn't a process that just happened."
West was the only member of the public to speak during the hearing, although roughly 20 young men wearing navy blue fire/OEM T-shirts also attended the meeting, representing the newly formed Fire Company II.
Eric Hernando, co-founder of the new company, is also a captain on the Holmdel Rescue Squad as well as the deputy coordinator for the township's Office of Emergency Management (OEM.) Hernando said afterwards that the majority of the new firemen are former members of the Holmdel Rescue Squad.
When asked why he and fellow co-founder Nick Rybakowski formed the new company, Hernando replied it was because there is "currently inadequate fire protection in town."
OEM Coordinator Mike Simpson concurred, noting that presently Holmdel must rely on Middletown for fire protection in many parts of town.
"This is something as a township we desperately needed," Simpson said.
Still, members of Fire Company I are not entirely convinced. Under the new ordinance, there will only be one fire chief for both companies, to be chosen by a special committee.
Schultz, who wrote the law, said he does not want to bash volunteerism.
"Yes, they're volunteers, but they're putting us in a situation," Schultz said. "They're making this out to be a you're-out-to-get-us situation when we're really in a out-to-protect-us-and-the-town situation."
Republished with permission of The Independent.
