Loretta Ziemba, mother of Holmdel Fire Company No. 1 Chief Douglas Ziemba Sr., criticizes members of the Township Committee for voting to close the company on April 29. KEITH HEUMILLER/STAFF Holmdel officials are calling for new leadership and a “culture change” at Fire Company No. 1 before the 97- year-old firehouse can resume operations.
Alleging inadequate training, failed responses and an aversion to mutual aid that has “alienated” neighboring towns, the Township Committee voted unanimously to disband Company No. 1 April 29, folding operations into the eight-year-old Fire Company No. 2.
Company No. 1 officers have disputed the claims, but vowed to work with the township to address their concerns and return to service as soon as possible.
Township Administrator Donna Vieiro said Company No. 1 could be restored once the problems are corrected, but she doubts that would occur without significant internal changes.
“We have been working with their chief, who hasn’t responded to us,” she said following the committee’s meeting. “We want them to succeed and we want them to have volunteers, but if they don’t change the leadership, we’re concerned it won’t happen.”
Committeeman Greg Buontempo, liaison to the township’s emergency services committee, said the leadership of Company No. 1 has failed to conduct mandatory trainings despite numerous recommendations from municipal officials.
As a result, the company can no longer be insured through a local joint insurance fund, he said.
Addressing a capacity crowd at Town Hall, Buontempo detailed a number of incidents at local schools and Bayshore Community Hospital in the past year that Company No. 1 didn’t respond to, despite calls that went out to both firehouses.
Doug Ziemba Jr., president of Company No. 1, said following the meeting that those calls had been called off by Company No. 2, which is closer to the locations in question. “We didn’t have any trucks on location because they were canceled by the other house,” he said.
Ziemba Jr. added that company members have regularly conducted in-house trainings.
Committee members also commented on Company No. 1’s refusal to provide mutual aid services to nearby towns, saying it alienated some departments that traditionally respond to Holmdel fires.
“That decision, although it was remedied by the mayor and the township administrator, puts the township at risk,” Buontempo said.
Joe Raymond, chief of Aberdeen Township Firehouse No. 2, told the committee that he had been called by Company No. 1 Chief Doug Ziemba Sr. after calling in support from Holmdel Company No. 2 during a fatal afternoon fire.
“He called me at home to tell me I had no right to call out Holmdel Township for mutual aid,” he said.
Ziemba Jr., speaking for his father, said on May 1 the decision to cancel mutual aid was made last year by the mayor and township officials, who were briefly considering merging the two companies.
Ziemba Sr., appointed as township fire chief by Mayor Patrick Impreveduto in 2013, was tasked with informing other towns, Ziemba Jr. said.
“We had the resources to provide coverage to Holmdel, but we couldn’t commit to providing coverage to other towns,” he said. “He was kind of the pawn that was relaying information.”
Township employees removed Company No. 1’s firetrucks on April 10 and transferred them to new locations as part of a comprehensive fire department realignment, which officials say will improve response times and ensure all Holmdel properties are within 2.5 miles of a fire station.
Operations on the south side have moved about 100 yards, from Company No. 1’s West Main Street firehouse to a donated building on the Vonage campus.
Company No. 1’s second truck has been moved to an underutilized first aid and emergency operations building at the municipal complex on Crawford’s Corner Road, which will function as a new, centrally based fire station under the plan.
The new facility is staffed by volunteer, on-site duty crews responding to all areas of the township from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., Buontempo said.
The realignment, along with the effective closure of Company No. 1, was first announced via public mailers sent out to residents in early April, touching off a wave of confusion and anger that lingered through last week’s meeting.
Loretta Ziemba, mother of Ziemba Sr., interrupted the public comment portion of the meeting with harsh words for the committee, accusing them of lying and asking why the firetrucks had been abruptly removed before official action was taken.
“Nobody had the decency to go over to them and say, ‘Look, fellas, you’re not doing this and you’re not doing that. We’re going to pull the plug,’” she said. “Nobody did that.”
Buontempo said Company No. 1 leaders had been told numerous times about the training requirements and failed to act.
After the meeting, Vieiro said the realignment had been planned and discussed for months. When the decision was finalized, some township officials raised concerns that township-owned fire equipment could be damaged before or during the transfer operation.
“But Chief Ziemba, when we told him, was a gentleman,” she said.
Vieiro said placing the truck at Vonage is only a temporary solution until the companyowned firehouse on West Main Street can be reopened.
“I’m hopeful that, once we have resolved some of this, we’ll be able to put the truck back at No. 1,” she said.
Vieiro said officials cannot force the company to conduct regular training, but the township’s annual fire department funding could be used to “incentivize” compliance.
Citing concerns with the physical fitness of some members of both fire companies, Vieiro said the township will also institute annual physicals to ensure each house has enough members to fight more demanding interior fires.
Ziemba Jr. said the company, which has 22 active members, plans on engaging in an aggressive recruitment drive in the months ahead. He acknowledged, however, that it is difficult to recruit members to a company that does not have a firetruck.
“We look forward to trying to work with the town to meet whatever requirements they have set and return to service as an active company,” he said.
The company also has a “solid, experienced” candidate who could take over as chief, Ziemba Jr. said, but new officers will have to be voted on by all of the members.
Company No. 2 currently has about 50 active members, Vieiro said. Under the township’s adopted ordinance, the company can now have up to 80 members.