By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Firefighters and emergency responders from all over central Jersey will be thanked for their yeoman effort in fighting a massive industrial park fire in Hillsborough on Feb. 11-13.
A free dinner for an estimated 400 members of fire companies, rescue squads and emergency management groups will be held at the Manville VFW from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 2, as a gesture of appreciation for rallying to Hillsborough’s aid in fighting a blaze at the Veterans Industrial Park on Route 206 in the northern part of the township. At least two buildings with about 500,000 total square feet were destroyed.
Derek Basista, of Manville, who is CEO and president of Charity Events Group, is organizing the event. He says he researched addresses of all 93 fire companies that responded to fight the fire or provide support in some way.
The casual buffet dinner is so large that responders only — no spouses or dates — unfortunately can be accommodated, said Mr. Basista. The general public can’t be invited, he said. He invited firefighters at Tuesday’s meeting to eat, chat and talk with each other.
There will be a band and the mayors of Hillsborough, Manville and Millstone are expected to attend, as well as the 16th District’s state legislative delegation.
The Manville VFW is donating the hall and cooking the meal, as well as donating much of the food, he told the Hillsborough Board of Fire Commissioners on Tuesday night.
Mr. Basista is putting up some of the money himself, and more is being solicited on the website www.gofundme.com/hilloughfire. The Internet plea has raised about $2,400 so far, he said, more than enough to cover expenses of the dinner, given the number of contributions coming in, he said. ShopRite in Hillsborough is giving a $250 gift card to the VFW to help offset purchases, he said.
Any further donations that accumulate will be given to the N.J. Fallen Firefighter’s Memorial planned for Allaire State Park in Farmingdale, he said. Dividing up the pot to donate a small amount to each of the fire companies would have proved unwieldy, he said.
Mr. Basista said he has been moved over his lifetime to help others and he was especially thankful for firefighters after Manville responders rescued him after he had a seizure and fallen down his basement steps two years ago.
The fire commission is awaiting the release of findings by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on what caused the fire. It did not appear to be deliberately set, said federal agents last week. Preliminary investigation pinpointed the source in a “high-rack storage area” of one of the two major destroyed buildings.
Hillsborough Chief Fire Marshal Christopher Weniger said tanker trucks — most from surrounding communities — shuttled more than 2.5 million gallons of water to fight the fire. He said he has been working with more than 100 insurance companies investigating claims at the fire site. Needless to say, the paperwork was complicated, and the report to the state will be daunting, he said.
He said he expects to digitize the more than 1,700 pieces of paper in the file — he’s already received requests from about 20 sources — for easier dissemination. He said he expects lawsuits to be filed.
The fire commission voted to donate $500 to both Signal 22, a Mercer County-based volunteer agency that provided food, drinks and shelter during the fire fighting, and the Salvation Army, which also provided support during the blaze.
Mr. Weniger called the incident “my nightmare fire”
He said early estimates indicated that the township incurred about $8,000 in apparatus and losses, but that much should be recovered through insurance. He said his goal was for the fire to have “zero dollar impact” on Hillsborough.
The property is owned by the federal government and leased as a warehouse and trailer park to individual companies.
He thanked fate for saving any serious injury, and stressed that “there was never any mercury in those buildings or on that site,” contrary to latent fears that some remained from federal government storage of the chemical decades ago. The last of the mercury was moved in 2010, officials have said.
