Dear Reporter:
I am a member of the Washington Fire Co. #1 in Delanco. Last night, March 19, we had one of our monthly drills. We took our ladder truck and our pumper to the riverfront in Beverly to practice hooking up the pumper to feed the ladder and flowing water into the river. As we pulled up to the river front, your illustrious Mr. Louis Crespo was parked on the side of the road with one of your police officers. They sat there and watched us as we positioned the trucks, pulled a couple sections of 5” diameter hose out and connected the trucks, pulled out more hose and connected the pumper to the hydrant, ran the ladder up and out over the river, pulled a handline off the ladder truck and took it to the riverbank, and flowed water out into the river. After we had gotten everything running smoothly, Mr. Crespo THEN decided to send the police officer over to tell us that he didn’t want us doing this training because once, a few years ago, a different company had accidentally damaged the street. Mr. Crespo of course couldn’t tell us BEFORE we set everything up, he was probably paralyzed with terror at the prospect of repeated damage to a street we didn’t harm the first time. We of course immediately shut down operations and left. The thought that a fire company which helps his town might want to practice in his town so we can be of better assistance if called upon apparently never crossed his mind. The fact that we had of course cleared our actions with the Beverly Fire Dept. probably never occurred to this rocket scientist either. I would hope that the people of Beverly and Edgewater Park would let Mr. Crespo know that they WANT other Fire Departments to feel welcome in their town. I do not live in Beverly or Edgewater Park , but if I did I would do everything I could to make sure Mr. Crespo couldn’t get a job as a crossing guard from now on. We here at the Washington Fire Co. value our working relationship with all our mutual aid companies, and we are sure that our brother firefighters understand we will always be there for them no matter what cretins get elected in their towns.
BT
Dear BT,
Perhaps you were interfering with the Kings business operations! His customers would be scared off with you guys practicing your drill during business hours.
The Edgewater Park Reporters
