Longtime fire commissioner stepping aside
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Shortly after Kenneth Wetzel moved to Hillsborough in 1972, he returned to Fanwood to do some banking.
On one fall day, he saw smoke nearby and was drawn to a house on fire. He and others went to the back door, but could not get in through the kitchen. The main fire was in the living room where a candle in a Halloween pumpkin had ignited cleaning fluid rubbed on a rug.
A woman drove up and shrieked her daughter and two grandchildren were inside the house. Despite everyone’s best efforts, the woman and children died.
The incident stuck with him, he said. His wife, Carol, had been encouraging him to get involved in the community so he joined the fire company on Woods Road.
”And I’m still there,” Mr. Wetzel said Monday.
His years of service to Company No. 3 was the basis for his successful run for the township Board of Fire Commissioners in 1986. With the exception of a three-year lapse, he’s helped shape the township firefighting and emergency response ever since.
Now he’s decided to stand down and not run for re-election to the board in the annual election Feb. 16. The Township Committee intends to honor Mr. Wetzel for his 24 years, including 12 as chairman, on the fire commission board with a proclamation at its meeting Tuesday.
His resume lists a lot of accomplishments. Within just a year of joining Company 3, he was elected to the executive office of president where he developed the company’s first annual budget and obtained a $170,000 mortgage for new building construction of the Woods Road firehouse.
His work on the board led to gaining federal emergency management grants in 2007 and 2008. In one, the township received $330,000 to replace 65 self-contained breathing apparatus units. In the other, the township got $256,000 to help upgrade the radio system as it was moving to a VHF-based model, expanding frequencies and allowing all companies to communicate with each other. The grant paid for handheld walkie-talkies, and the Fire Department bought truck and bay units.
He also pushed a plan in the 1990s to pay for annual physicals for firefighters.
Mr. Wetzel, who’ll be 72 this month, still responds to fire calls, but “as I get older, I get smarter,” he said, preferring to drive vehicles. “I’m glad we have new members to do the interior tasks.”
He’s still glad to see volunteers stepping forward to perform the dangerous and daunting tasks as firefighters.
”I’m amazed as to why they want to do it,” he said. “It takes a lot of time with drills, school, work parties.”
And the new guys do it well. He said he’s definitely noticed an increased amount of professionalism in his 36 years around the firehouse.
”It’s something you have to enjoy doing,” he said. “You are helping your neighbors. You get the camaraderie with other firefighters.”
He says he’ll miss his work on the board, but he can look back on how the fire district grew in his tenure. It took long-range views on supporting all four companies that serve the township. He bought into the philosophy of paying cash, even for expensive vehicles. This year, the commission intends to buy two replacement command vehicles.
He’s still an active member and a trustee at Company 3, and he intends to keep on serving wherever he can.
”There’s always something to do at the firehouse at any age,” he said.