“It’s one of the most dangerous jobs in the country,” said Chief Frank Montagne. Few people would dispute that. Yet 10 men eagerly took the oath as firemen in the North Regional Fire & Rescue (NHRFR) on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue was established in 1999 to serve Guttenberg, North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, and West New York. There are currently 15 NHRFR firehouses serving the region.
All 10 of the new firefighters were military veterans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan, bringing the total to 65 veterans hired by the department over the past two and a half years.
The ceremony at Scheutzen Park also included the promotion of firefighter Markus Rehfeld to captain after 13 years with the force.
“What better way to celebrate the holidays than to welcome new firefighters and to recognize those advancing in rank?” asked Guttenberg Mayor Gerald Drasheff, one of numerous mayors and town officials attending the ceremony. “For those of you who are new, welcome to the North Hudson Regional family. I’m sure you will carry on the traditions of those who came before you who served the North Hudson area. And for those of you advancing in rank, congratulations. This represents a recognition of your dedication to service of all the residents of Hudson.”
A dream come true
“As you’ve served your country honorably, please continue to serve North Hudson Regional,” said Chief Montagne, addressing the new firefighters. “Your military background is a tremendous asset to North Hudson. You know discipline. You know command structure. You’ve dealt with large equipment. It’s the perfect combination for North Hudson, for us. It’s been working very well and I’m proud that you guys are part of it.”
“I wanted to be part of something that I could be proud that I helped others, and this was a good fit for me.” – Luis Mejia
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Marcin Cymek was among the 10 new firefighters to take the oath. “It’s a dream come true to finally be a part of a fire department. I volunteered for 15 years in my town, East Windsor,” he said. Cymek served in Iraq, returning to the states in 2007. Being a firefighter was a longtime goal for him. “It’s a great brotherhood, camaraderie. The ability to help out people when they have their worst day.”
Luis Mejia served in the armed forces from 2002 to 2005, straight out of high school. Upon returning, he held several jobs, including driving trucks and working for an armored car service delivering money to banks.
“I had a lot of coworkers in that job that were firefighters,” he said. “They kept telling me I should take the test. So I tried out four years ago. I took the civil service test and finally after four years of waiting I got the big lottery call. I got hired.”
Why firefighting? “It’s just the way I am, I like to help individuals and the job just fits that,” he said. “That’s why I joined the military. I wanted to be part of something that I could be proud that I helped others, and this was a good fit for me.”
The hiring process
“We’re mandated by the courts to hire off a state list,” explained Deputy Chief David Donnaruma about how the NHRFR finds its recruits. “And right now in the State of New Jersey, veterans have preference. They go to the top of the list. It’s disabled veterans, regular veterans, and then everybody else. So we just call the state, say we want to hire X amount of guys, they give us a certified list, and whoever’s there we call and see if they want to go through the process.”
NHRFR received a $5.6 million federal SAFER (Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response) grant in 2012 that allowed them to hire 32 new firefighters. The new recruits are not part of that original group of 32.
“These guys weren’t hired with grant money,” said Donnaruma. “The SAFER grant, when you get that, whatever number you’re at you always have to maintain.”
“The whole idea of the grant is to increase and maintain the level of coverage for the residents,” explained Executive Director Jeffrey Welz. NHRFR determined that the optimum number of firefighters they needed was about 270 and then applied for the grant based on that number.
“The grant money was spread over three years,” said Weehawken Mayor and Chairman of the NHRFR Board Richard Turner. “We used some this year and we’ll use the remainder next year. Whatever’s left over if we don’t use it may go into a fourth year. We just have to keep that number [of firefighters] up. We’ll keep it up anyway because that’s our number.”
“As the guys retire we have to replace them,” said Welz. “In fact, we’re going to start hiring again because we had guys retire. These guys replaced guys that retired at the end of ‘13, beginning of ‘14. Since July we’ve had two or three more retirements. And we have more starting in ‘15. We try to be like two ahead. So say 10 retire, we’ll hire 12 because by the time we get done, two more will go. The process, just to get them hired, can take two to three months. Background checks, physicals.”
Also among the officals gathered on Dec. 16 to honor the firefighters were North Bergen Mayor and State Sen. Nicholas Sacco and West New York Mayor Felix Roque.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.