PISCATAWAY: Police are investigating a vandalism incident at a township firehouse in which someone broke into the building and damaged firefighting equipment and gear, officials said yesterday.
A small plastic pipe bomb also was detonated outside the New Market Fire Company at 801 South Washington Ave., but caused minimal damage to the building, Piscataway police Capt. Rick Ivone said.
"Right now there's minor damage," Ivone said. "We're looking into it."
Ivone said police are still searching for the responsible party and said it "could be anybody."
"You've got kids that set off things all the time," he said.
The incident, which occurred at 7 p.m. Saturday, was a surprise to some local fire officials, including Fire District 1 Commissioner Bob Ring, who is also the district treasurer.
"We've never had anything like this happen at the firehouse," Ring said, adding that the station was locked and he does not know how the vandals got in.
Ring said vandalism inside the firehouse included damage to a thermal-imaging camera, valued at $10,000 to $15,000, but it is still "usable." He said there was broken glass on the floor, chairs put on the roof and personal protective firefighter gear thrown about.
"It's not clear what their intent was," he said.
A special meeting that was closed to the public was held Tuesday by fire commissioners, Ring said, to discuss the incident. He said they decided to place the firehouse off-limits to anyone but on-duty personnel until the matter was closed.
But some members of the fire company said they are not entirely shocked by the incident. Fire Chief Walter Siegrist Jr. called the vandalism "just another incident that occurred" and said it did not surprise him at all, noting that a lot of young people were around the firehouse at the time of the incident.
