History

On Saturday, April 24, 1963, around 10:00 a.m., a massive forest fire swept through the towns of Newtonville, Folsom, Hammonton and Collings Lakes. The fire started off of Unexpected Rd. in Newtonville, jumping major highways such as Rte. 322, Rte. 30 and Rte. 54, passing through the town of Collings Lakes. Fire Departments from all over South Jersey responded to the blaze. Even Fire Depts. from Philadelphia sent Engines and man-power to help battle this fire. The forest fire lasted 4 days, only loosing 1 home in Collings Lakes on the first block of Cains Mill Rd., and was finally extinguished late Tuesday evening, April 28, 1963. Shortly after the fire, Bill Storck and Frank Rubbick decided that Collings Lakes was in desperate need of its own Fire Dept.

Using an old 2 bay garage located off the corner of Cains Mill Rd. and Cedar Lake Dr., the Collings Lakes Vol. Fire Co. No. 1 was created. The old garage belonged to the Newtonville Fire Dept., in which they housed 2 pieces of apparatus. Their current Firehouse is located on Rte. 54 in Newtonville. Later an addition was built onto the garage by the members of the Collings Lakes Fire Dept. Many Sundays went by, and Bill Storck and Frank Rubbick went door-to-door getting petitions signed in order to created the new fire district, now known as District 5 in Buena Vista Township. On February, 1964, the first Collings Lakes Fire District election was held and Joe Quigley, John Quigley, Frank Remhard, Joe Ambrosia and Howard McCormick were elected the first District 5 Fire Commissioners and Frank Trendler was the first President of the Fire Dept. Mrs. Ambrosia gave the Fire Dept. $500.00, in which they used to purchase an old AutoCar from the Star Cross Fire Dept. On the AutoCar was a 500 gallon tank and some booster hose which sat in a basket on top of the car. In 1964, planning began for a new fire engine, an International with a price tag of only $17,000.00 and came fully equipped.

The 1964 Internation was the Collings Lakes Vol. Fire Co. No. 1's first new Fire Engine. Pictured here in 1965 driving down Atlantic Ave., Atlantic City, NJ in the Annual New Jersey Firemen's Relief Association Parade, which is now held in Wildwood, NJ. Riding atop of the Fire Engine was Leo Wilgus (waving), Bill Loder (Leakyboot Loder), the driver was David Moore and Chief Bill Storck was in the passenger's seat.

Bill Storck was the first Chief of the Dept. with Frank Rubbick acting as Asst. Chief and the first fire that the newly created Collings Lakes Vol. Fire Co. No. 1 responded to was Bill Storck's own car, in which they drafted water from the creek next to the building to extinguish the fire. Bill Storck started his volunteer fire career at age 17 with the Ashland Fire Co. No. 1, now known as the Vorhees Fire Dept. Chief Storck had alot of equipment donated to the Collings Lakes Fire Dept. from the Ashland Fire Dept. Bill's wife started the first Collings Lakes Vol. Fire Dept. Ladies Auxiliary, and other members' wives joined in as well, working hard to help their brave Firemen. In fact one way some of the Ladies helped was acting as dispatchers. People in the town were given phone numbers to call and a total of three homes spread out in Collings Lakes were able to activate the siren atop the peak of the Firehouse, and had a list of phone numbers in which they would call Firemen and let them know of a fire, one of which was Asst. Chief Frank Rubbick's wife, Helen. At that time couldn't afford pagers or radios, until a few years later, the Dept. purchased it's first radio for Engine 23-1 and Elizabeth Bowers had the dispatch radio and was the acting dispatcher for the Collings Lakes Fire Dept. And the rest was ..... History!

Alex Meloni (left), President after Frank Trendler, and James Hare, a former Fire Commissioner. Here, Alex is awarding Jim wi th a plaque, in which is also installed on Engine 23-2. This plaque is a dedication to Jim for all his efforts in designing the Engine, and all his dedication to serving the community.