After training all summer in town, they are bound
for Morris County Fire Academy through November
CARTERET, NJ – Mayor Daniel J. Reiman has announced four new hires to the Borough Fire Department.
The department had been training the cadets since July in site and building familiarization, basic safety, and physical fitness before they continued training at the Morris County Fire Academy, Fire Chief Mark Hruska said.
The fire hires are Amr Abedelnabi, 20, the Borough’s first-ever Muslim firefighter; Caleb Delossantos, 29; Lester Castillo, 23, and Jason Chapman, 30. Delossantos and Castillo follow Isley Perez, the Borough’s first-ever Latin and female career recruit hired last year. All are residents of Carteret.
The recruits will participate in the Career Firefighter Fire 1 and Fire 2 courses through Nov. 22 at the Fire Academy, Chief Hruska said.
“I’m proud to say that I’m the first fire chief in the history of the Carteret Fire Department to have the first Muslim cadet since 1894,” he said. “Last year, was the first-ever female and Latin recruit, and we’ve expanded with two new Latino recruits. I’m proud to see the diversification of the fire department reflect the great cultural diversity of Carteret. That’s a big thing to me, and I’m happy to see it.”
Perez was among the firefighters who helped the new recruits with their local training. The others are Lieutenants Eric Wahl and Tom Reynolds and Firefighters Ben Lakatos and Mike Caputo.
Chief Hruska said he also was happy to see that two public safety education programs he initiated inspired two of the recruits to pursue fire service careers. Those programs are an elementary school fire poster contest and a Fire Prevention Week awareness event, the Chief said.
“I was interested to see them impacted as little kids and wanting in adult life to become firefighters,” Chief Hruska said. “You think you’re doing these things to do them because that’s what we do, but it turns out that they have a big impact, evidently. The lasting memories when these kids were 5, 6, 7, 8 years old made them want to be a firefighter, which is really pretty sharp.”
The new hires brings the Fire Department’s compliment of firefighters to 24.
According to census figures, Carteret is the most culturally diverse municipality in Central Jersey and the third most culturally diverse municipality in the nation’s most culturally diverse state. The Borough annually celebrates its diversity with Ethnic Day, the 48th edition of which will be Sept. 21 in Carteret Park.
Updates about Borough emergency services, as well as Ethnic Day, will be available at Carteret.net or by following @MyCarteret on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
