Al "Pop" Pinnella Sr.
1924-2005

A DEATH IN OUR FAMILY

March 30th - It is with deep regret that we announce the passing of Ex-Chief and exempt member Al "Pop" Pinnella, Sr. at the age of 81. Ex-Chief Pinnella joined Community Vol. Fire Company in 1946, and served as Chief of the Department in 1970 and 1976.  He was also a member of the Community Volunteer First Aid Squad from 1946 until 1975, and was a state certified Fire Police Officer from 1993 until 2003.  Ex-Chief Pinnella was also among the top 10 responders for the past 25 years.  He is survived by his three sons, Wayne, Al Jr., and Lewis, all of whom are firefighters, and his three grandchildren Ryan, Austin, and Jonathan.

GALLERY PAGE COMPLETELY REDONE

March 19th - The photo gallery has been completely overhauled. Several new pictures have been added to the extrication class practical day 2, and it has been completely reorganized. Check it out, let me know what you think by e-mailing webmaster@station25.com. And yes, comments aren't limited to CVFC members, Station 27 members and the general public are welcome to comment as well (because we know they frequent this site often).

REPORTED BASEMENT FIRE ON BERRY STREET

March 19th - At 12:34, District 3 was dispatched to a reported smoke condition in the basement at 6 Hawthorne Drive. Chief Ries (Car 25) was first on scene, and after speaking to the residents at 6 Hawthorne, determined that it was the wrong residence. After asking County Dispatch for an updated address, they replied it was actually 147 Berry Street, which was 1 1/2 miles away on the other side of our district. Car 25 and Ladder 25 responded to the new address, with Chief Ries arriving first and establishing command. Engine 272 arrived as well, and pulled a line off their engine and made their way into the basement. After finding that the bulk of the fire was out on arrival, and now it was only smoldering, the Engine 272 crew requested a can be used to extinguish the smoldering remains. Ladder 25's crew performed the primary search and ventilation of the structure. It should be noted that since we were not with the E272 crew, and wanted to give proper credit to their role in this fire, we took the description of their actions directly from their website, station27.com.

TWO MULCH FIRES AT FRANKLIN DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS

March 17th - At 2030, District 3 was alerted to a mulch fire in the Franklin Township Department of Public Works. Chief Ries (Car 25A) responded there first and established command. Engine 272 arrived next, with Engine 251 next. The crew from 272 pulled lines of their engine, and began extinguishing the fire. All units except 272 cleared in 25 minutes, with 272 staying on scene to overhaul the mulch fire. At 11pm, we were redispatched back to the Department of Public works, for a rekindled mulch fire. Captain Middleton made the decision to take Ladder 25, so we could flow water from the tower's prepiped waterway if we needed to. When we arrived, Engines 272 and 274 were spraying water from their deck guns on the huge piles of burning mulch. Since they weren't getting the penetration into the mulch piles that were needed, command ordered the bucket put up in the air and to use it's smoothbore nozzles to penetrate the outer layer of mulch. So, the engines turned off their deck guns, and started pumping to the ladder. Along with the help of a DPW front-loader, L25's crew extinguished the fire. L25 crew was Driver/Engineer Pinnella, Captain Middledon, FF Whitaker, FF/Engineer Amos, FF Amaldonado, and FF/EMT Greenhaus. All units cleared by 2340.

A photo of the ladder's stream on the mulch piles using our special low light camera lens	Ladder 25 putting out the fire using the ladder tower

TODAY WE MOURN THE LOSS OF A BROTHER FIREFIGHTER

March 7th - Today, 1st Lieutenant John D'Antuono, of the East Brunswick Independent Fire Company passed away at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield NJ, at the age of 46. In addition to being a lieutenant in East Brunswick, Lt. D'Antuono was an instructor at the Middlesex County Fire Academy. While we usually don't post events like this on our website, our webmaster is currently an associate member of EBIFC, and he wanted to make sure everyone was aware that a good firefighter and officer has passed away before his time. Our condolences go out to the entire D'Antuono family. Funeral services will be held Friday, March 11, at 9:15 a.m. at Brunswick Memorial Home, 454 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick, followed by a 10 a.m. Mass of Christian Burial at St. Bartholomew's R.C. Church, East Brunswick. For more information, visit http://www.ebifc.com

STATION25.COM CELEBRATES FIRST MONTH

March 1st - Yesterday, Station25.com celebrated it's first complete month in existence. We averaged 46 visitors per day, for a total of 1300 visitors for the entire month of February. The top 3 ways people came to our site were from Direct Requests, from Firehouse.com, and from Signal99.com. Our busiest day was February 18th, where we had 80 people visit our site. The busiest time period that peopled visited out side was between 3pm and 4pm. Not bad numbers for our website's first complete month in existence.