Effective this month, Dave Lampart takes on the year-long position of Deputy Chief for the Woodbury Volunteer Fire Dept. Lampart, an executive with the Full Power group of FM stations, is a veteran firefighter and previously was deputy chief. He replaces Corey Shaker who decided not to run for re-election due to business pressure as CEO of the Shaker Automotive Group.
At the annual awards dinner June 28th, the department honored longtime veteran Frank Morgan with its Most Valuable Member. The citation was announced less than two days before Morgan died of cancer in a local hospital at age 66. Morgan was unanimously elected in a tribute to his 46 years of firefighting including many years in officer roles and even organizing restoration of the department’s 1927 Seagrave firetruck. Says the citation in part, “His accomplishments include being an interior firefighter, apparatus driver, Orenaug captain, Hotchkissville captain and deputy chief. This resume can only belong to one person.”
Among other awards in the yearly event at the 1754 House, firefighter Earl Gillette, a retired commercial pilot, was cited again for the most responses in the last 12 months in answering 219 callouts. Shaker, the outgoing deputy chief, also praised firefighters Nick Abouzeid, Mel Brenner, Matt Gehrig, Chuck Kiessling, and Rob Start for answering more than 100 calls each during the year. Officers who responded more than 100 times included Shaker, Fire Chief Janet B. Morgan, Lt Chris Start, and then-lieutenant Steve Cunningham.
In all the Woodbury department listed 339 calls in the year from June 2022 to June 2023 of which 21 were fires. Another 89 responses were rescues, mostly motor vehicle accidents; 62 were for hazardous situations including downed power lines, fallen trees, and toxic spills; service calls numbered 40, and 32 runs were community events including final drive-bys honoring deceased firefighters. Alarms with no incident totaled 95. “This is slightly down from preceding years when we averaged more than one run a day,” Chief Morgan said prior to the event. “That’s good. It means people are aware of safety issues and are careful.”
In other elections at the Orenaug company: Cunningham, an IT security consultant, moved from lieutenant to captain. Mark Mastrangelo is first lieutenant and Matt Gehrig is second lieutenant. At the Hotchkissville company: Andy Heavens, an automobile sales executive, was returned as captain with Joe Corey as first lieutenant and Chris Start as second lieutenant. All were elected unanimously without opposition.
Additionally, in long-service awards, Bud Neal was honored for 60 years as a firefighter, Mitch Chester for 50, Lee Warner for 45, and Geoff Quinn and Lt Chris Start both for 20 years. John Fuller, CEO of Full Power Radio which owns and operates five FM stations in the state, was named an Woodbury honorary firefighter for his role in public-service promotion of firefighting fund-raising events.
Jim Arndt, chair of the town’s Board of Fire Commissioners, administered the annual oath to seven active firefighters at the dinner. Shaker’s final act as deputy chief was a gift to spouses and partners of 45 hanging flower baskets donated by the Garden Nursery on Route 6 opposite Middle Road Tpke. The flowers thanked them for their patience as firefighters jumped from a meal, family time, sleep or work to don gear and answer an alarm at any time of day or night, he said.
Chief Morgan also thanked Bethlehem Fire Chief Ken LeClerc for his presence and for assigning a fully-staffed firetruck to Woodbury as mutual-assistance coverage while Woodbury firefighters were at the dinner.