Assistant Chief Toth Retires to Florida

Dec 31st - It is with a combined joy and sadness that we announce that Assistant Chief Toth has decided to retire to Florida. Asst. Chief Toth joined District 3 in 1958. He became an active member of Community VFC in 1998, and served in many capacities, most recently as Assistant Chief and Training Officer. He is also a County Fire Coordinator for Somerset County. Asst. Chief Toth is a retired career firefighter with the New Brunswick Fire Department. During his time with NBFD, he held many positions, including acting Deputy Chief and Training Officer. In addition to his local roles, Asst. Chief Toth was a fire instructor at the Middlesex County Fire and EMS Academy, and at the Somerset County Emergency Services Training Academy. He has designed several courses while at SCESTA, and is a frequent contributor to various fire service trade magazines. We at Station 25 wish Asst. Chief Toth and his family good luck in Florida

A few additions to station25.com

Dec 28th - In the upcoming days, a couple new things will be appearing on station25.com. The first is the appearance of a new counter at the bottom of the screen. Even though it's going to start at 000000, I figured I would just share some of the current stats about the website: We have had 345,865 hits from July to December. We had 2,730 unique visitors to the site, with the site being viewed 7,275 times. We switched hosting providers in July, so I'm still working on getting an accurate count of all the hits and visitor numbers for the entire year.  We will also be adding a guestbook to the site.  Many people have requested it, and we are just narrowing down which one is right for our site.  It should be up soon.

Car Vs. Pole on Franklin Blvd

Dec 26th - At 0120, District 3 was dispatched for a reported motor vehicle crash in the area of Franklin Blvd and Hamilton St with possible entrapment. Rescue 25 and Engine 251 responded to the scene with 4 firefighters on each vehicle. Chief Ries (Car 25) was first on scene, established command, and advised crews that a single vehicle had crashed into a telephone pole, shearing it in half. He advised units that there was no entrapment, but kept both units responding to the scene. Both crews arrived, and Rescue 25's crew secured the vehicle, while Engine 251's crew controlled the fluids that were leaking onto the roadway. The driver was uninjured. All units cleared in under 30 minutes. Three members earn their black shields

Dec 21st- After 3 months of hard work, we are proud to announce that three more probationary firefighters have successfully completed Firefighter I at the Somerset County Fire Academy. Firefighters Lisa Raisch, Brian Kwintyn and Sam Merhi turned in their yellow probationary firefighter shields, and were issued black engine company firefighter shields by Chief Ries. Now that they graduated, they are classified as interior firefighters, and can fight fires inside structures alongside their fellow firefighters. Congratulations to all three, all your hard work has paid off.

A Busy Weekend for station 25

Dec 18th - This past weekend was an unusually busy one for Station 25. Crews ran on 12 calls over the past 3 days, the busiest time being between 6:30am and 10am on Friday, when we had 6 alarms. Station 25 was also requested to respond into District #2 for a reported structure fire, and for a 1st alarm assignment for the City of New Brunswick. Ladder 25 was also requested by New Brunswick to stand by while NBFD crews searched the Raritan River for a reported kayaker who fell in the river. All this was in addition to the Santa runs that crews have been doing during the evenings and weekends. Quite a busy time first 7 days of helping Santa in Franklin.

 
From left to right: Truck Co FF Whitaker, Eng Amos,
Prob FF Raisch, Engine Captain Middleton, Santa,
Engine Co FF Sudo, FF O'Meara, Chief Ries

Dec 17th- Over the past week, members of Station 25 have been helping Santa visit many families in district #3. On Saturday, we spent several hours bringing Santa to the families on the north end of our district. Afterwards, we were invited to a Christmas party at Eng. Amos's niece's house. Good food was had by all, and no one left with an empty stomach.

Even with pink bibs, babies are still cute on Santa's knee	Santa on his sleigh
Even puppies like Santa	Good food at the Christmas party
	It was a cold night, everyone was bundled up. Somehow FF Raisch not only found a baby, but ended up feeding it dinner.

Hummer Vs. Van on Hamilton St.

Dec 14th - On a cold December night, at 2247, Station 25 was dispatched for a motor vehicle crash with possible entrapment. Chief Ries (Car 25A), Asst. Chief Toth (Car 25B) were the first fire units on scene, confirming a hummer had struck a van, causing it to flip on its side. The driver of the van was still trapped in the car. Rescue 25 called in service with 6 firefighters (including 2 EMTs) and arrived on scene in under 2 minutes. Upon arrival, crews went to work stabilizing the vehicle for a possible tool job. By this time, EMTs from Franklin-Somerset First Aid Squad and Paramedics from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital had arrived on scene, and had assessed the patient. Finding that the patient did not want to be treated or transported, EMS crews assisted the patient in crawling out of the vehicle. Rescue 25's crew stood by as the tow truck operator righted the van. The scene was turned over to the Franklin Township Police Department. Chief Ries was the incident commander, all units cleared in under 30 minutes.

The van was pinned between the hummer and the pole	Crews stabilized the hummer and then went to work on the van

Santa Visits District #3

Dec 11th- During the next two weeks, the firefighters of Community Volunteer Fire Company will be helping Santa visit the children of Fire District #3.  Our district's borders are Rt. 27 to the south, Clyde Rd to the west, JFK Blvd to the north, and the City of New Brunswick to the east.  We will be escorting him between 7pm and 10pm from Dec 11th to Dec 24th.  So if you hear Christmas music, or see us driving by with Santa in tow, feel free to come out and see him.  If you would like to find out approximately when we will be in your area, e-mail us at Santa@station25.com

Santa waving to the cars passing in front of the fire house	We had kids of all ages, from the very young....
...to the still young...	..to the young brothers..
...to the not so young...	...to the young at heart

Ladder 25 to new Brunswick for 4-alarm warehouse fire

Dec 6th- At 1916, Ladder 25 was requested to respond mutual aid into the City of New Brunswick for a 2nd alarm warehouse fire on the corner of Jersey Ave. and Quentin Ave. After a brief stay at fire headquarters, a 3rd alarm was sounded, which sent Ladder 25 directly to the scene of the fire. Ladder 25 was assigned to assist New Brunswick Truck 1 in ventilating the roof. They also forced entry on the A side of the structure, and then set a positive pressure ventilation relay throughout the building in order to remove all the smoke from the structure. Ladder 25 was on location for over 6 hours. New Brunswick Deputy 2 was the incident commander.