Bergen Record
By MICHAEL S. JAMES, Staff Writer
Date: 08-28-1994, Sunday
Westwood may be old but its volunteer Fire Department is slightly older.
Months before the borough incorporated on May 9, 1894, local residents
formed the Continental Hook and Ladder Company on Feb. 10 of the same
year and purchased its first truck after raising $350.
In the early part of this century, fires still were fought with
horse-drawn vehicles, but the system was highly efficient. A man named
Gary Cronk Sr. had a stable on Broadway that supplied horses to the Fire
Department. When the alarm sounded, prepared harnesses would drop down
from the firehouse ceiling onto the horses, who would race out pulling
the equipment.
"An old-timer told me they were going to a fire and those horses were
really wild," said Ed Vanderbeck, a lifelong resident of Westwood. "He
said they would get almost out of control when they were going to a
fire. He said one time, there were three men on the back when they
started. When they got there, there was nobody. They were lying in the
road because they'd lost their grip."
In 1909, according to later accounts, another company formed, initially
as competition for the charter company. Legend has it that crews from
the two groups would compete to be first at the scene of a fire to claim
the available hydrants, and sometimes even would set small fires
themselves after locking the other company in their headquarters to
prevent it from grabbing any glory.
Soon afterward, municipal officials forced the companies to merge into
one department.
Today, the 70-member Westwood Fire Department under Chief Christopher
Mayer includes Continental Hook and Ladder, Continental Hose Company No.
1, and Westwood Hose Company No. 2, and is celebrating one common
centennial by emphasizing a "Declaration of Interdependence."
"We started preparing to celebrate this in 1992," said Robert W. Miller,
co-chairman of the Fire Department's centennial committee. Miller has
stuck with the department for 13 years despite moving to Ridgewood nine
years ago.
"It was what I expected fire departments to be," Miller said. "There's
camaraderie . . . There's a level of focus. You think to yourself, `This
objective [of putting out the fire] is more important than my ego.'"
The special centennial celebrations started on the 100th birthday of the
department in February with a ceremony for past and present borough
firefighters and their families that was attended by 200 people, Miller
said.
In June, the department and the Westwood Chamber of Commerce closed
Westwood Avenue so emergency service groups could wheel out their
equipment and firefighters could give presentations on fire safety and
prevention.
Such an emphasis is a major difference between today's department and
those of bygone years, said Victor J. Butterfield Jr., a 52-year veteran
and the second-longest-serving member of the department.
"It's easier now as far as fires are concerned because we don't have
that many," Butterfield said. "Years ago, we didn't have these
fire-prevention bureaus and smoke alarms. Now, people are more educated
and more careful."
On June 4, on the heels of the fire-prevention exhibits and the
borough's massive Memorial Day centennial parade, the Fire Department
continued its centennial festivities by hosting the 81st Annual New
Jersey and New York Volunteer Fireman's Association Parade and
Convention. Hundreds of fire officials, more than 40 bands, and 200
pieces of fire equipment from more than 70 towns took to borough streets
for a friendly competition.
