Red Bank Fire Department Honors Three Members

There’s a pattern that emerges when they’re asked about their decades of volunteer service. Words like “family,” and “community,” often come in between shrugs, as if the question doesn’t make much sense.

For the three people honored for a combined 145 years of service with the Red Bank Volunteer Fire Department Tuesday night, the department has always been a constant in their life, a welcome obligation they’ve never grown tired of even as the decades start to run into each other.

At a firehouse dinner at Liberty Hose on White Street, one of the borough’s six fire companies, Muriel DeFazio, William Clayton, and Benny Riegelman were honored for their service to the company and to Red Bank, service that has always been a part of their life, it seems.

Riegelman was honored for 30 years of service – though the 48 year old said he’s got 31 years under his belt – Clayton for 50 years, and DeFazio, a member of the department’s ladies auxiliary, for 65 years.

Council President Arthur Murphy, the fire department’s liaison to borough council, was on hand to present the pins and gift certificates to the honorees.

“It’s a never ending job for you guys, regardless of what that job is,” he told the gathered crowd. “Whenever something is going on, whenever there’s an event, I know you guys will always be out there.”

And out there they’ve been, and in various capacities.

DeFazio joined the fire department’s Ladies Auxiliary only a few years after the group formed in 1950. The purpose of the organization is to be ready to assist the men of the fire department and to help guide and coordinate activities.

With a father, a husband, and a brother having served for various departments in the area, DeFazio felt she needed to get involved, too. The 87-year-old’s efforts extended to her son, Pete DeFazio, a former department chief, and now his firefighter daughter.

There’s your family and then there’s your fire department. For most of the volunteers, those two are one in the same.

“That’s just what this is, family,” the 71-year-old Clayton said. “Everyone would do anything for another.”

Liberty Hose Company President Frank Woods spoke prior to the ceremony about what it means to be part of this family. The fire department is something of a legacy, passed down from generation to generation.

It requires dedication, he said, but it’s come to define many of the people who belong to the organization and call Red Bank home, and it’s something none of them is willing to give up.

“People don’t realize the time that foes into this thing,” he said. “But we feel like we’re part of the Red Bank family and we’re here to help. We’re a large family, we may not be related by blood, but we’re all related.”