RED BANK: TRIGGIANO NOW A FIRE ‘PROBIE’
Red Bank has two new probationary firefighters, and one’s the borough fire and police commissioner.
RED BANK: STREET VIGIL HONORS FIREFIGHTER
Lit by candles and streetlights, participants shared memories of Andrew Hill at the event. Below, Hill in a selfie posted to his Facebook page last November. (Above photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
On the Red Bank corner where he suffered a fatal stab wound, dozens of mourners gathered for a hushed vigil in memory of 26-year-old firefighter Andrew Hill Saturday night.
Many wore t-shirts bearing the emblem of the firehouse where he served, located just four blocks away. And everyone, it seemed, had been affected by Hill’s irrepressible positive attitude.
RED BANK: MURDERED FIREFIGHTER RECALLED
Andrew Hill in a 2015 Facebook photo. Below, fire Chief Stu Jensen’s badge bore a black band in memory of Hill and others. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
He had just made the last payment on his dress blues, the uniform that Red Bank volunteer firefighters wear to ceremonial occasions like the Memorial Day remembrance of colleagues who have died in the previous year.
But 26-year-old Andrew Hill was absent from Monday’s ceremony. Instead, he was among those being honored less than 36 hours after he was murdered just four blocks from the firehouse he loved.
FAIR HAVEN: FIREFIGHTER HELD FOR ARSON
A Fair Haven volunteer firefighter was arrested and charged with arson Saturday, the Monmouth County Prosecutor announced Sunday evening.
Nicholas Joyce, 19, was alleged to have set a fire to a storage shed behind a church Friday afternoon. He then went to the borough firehouse, where he responded to the fire with other volunteers, according to Acting Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.
MEMORIALS FOR A BELOVED BICYCLIST
A bicycle painted pink, said to have been the favorite color of Shrewsbury resident Cole Porter, and a solitary candle were left Thursday night on River Road in Fair Haven at the site of the September 15 racing accident that resulted in Porter’s death Wednesday. At right, the marquee at the Shrewsbury Hose Company, where Porter was a volunteer firefighter.
Services in the form of a three-hour viewing that begins at 9 a.m., followed immediately by a funeral mass, are scheduled for Monday, both at the Church of the Nativity in Fair Haven. (Click to enlarge)
FAIR HAVEN BIKE CRASH VICTIM DIES
Cole Porter, the Shrewsbury bicyclist who was seriously injured last month in an accident during a Tour de Fair Haven race, died Wednesday.
Porter’s death was reported on the Porterhouse Support Group Facebook page, where hundreds of tributes and messages of support had been posted after the September 15 accident.
“It’s just tragic,” said Fair Haven Mayor Ben Lucarelli, who was a friend to Porter.
STAYING CLOSE TO THE FIREHOUSE
Vince Sarullo, right, and Colin Seitz on the fire escape of their new office, next door to the Navesink Hook & Ladder on Mechanic Street. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
This was going to be an article about a building.
redbankgreen‘s original impulse on this story was to call attention to the fact that a prominent second-floor space in downtown Red Bank had been filled after a prolonged vacancy yet another sign of the business district’s robust comeback from the economic woes of recent years.
But things changed when we found out who occupies that space, and what their presence says about their sense of responsibility and commitment to a place they don’t even call home.
FIREFIGHTER INJURED IN BLAZE AT HOME
A Sea Bright firefighter was injured in a fire Monday night at the home he shared with his father, Councilman Read Murphy.
Brett Murphy was burned on both hands following a blowback of the fire he started in a fireplace on the second floor of the rental property at 588 Ocean Avenue, his father said Tuesday night.
JUDGE WON’T BAR FIREFIGHTER BROTHERS
A municipal court judge found that Justin Hughes, above, provoked the assault by Peter and Steven Lang, below, by saying that Steven Lang should have died in Iraq. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
The Lang brothers of Sea Bright won’t be barred from serving as officers of the volunteer fire department as a result of their convictions for assaulting a third firefighter during a wetdown celebration in the firehouse bar a year ago, a judge ruled Wednesday afternoon.
Instead, the Langs and the man they were convicted of attacking all came away with the same sentence: $500 in penalties, as well as a requirement to perform 100 hours of community service.
That service, said Little Silver Judge James Berube, could come in the form volunteer fire or first aid work, duties all three have performed for years.
TWO SEA BRIGHT FIREFIGHTERS GET BACKUP
A frame from a video of the firehouse tussle that landed three Sea Bright volunteers in court on misdemeanor charges. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Sea Bright’s fire chief and a borough councilman have asked the judge in an assault case involving three firefighters not to ban two of the brawlers from the volunteer department.