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Crime & Safety

Local Firefighters Unwind With Cigar Smoke Benefit

The event went toward the Pine Brook Fire Department's 2013 centennial.

With almost 200 people attending, members and friends of the Pine Brook Volunteer Fire Department took part in its second annual Cigar Smoke benefit on Friday.

"This event is part of the brotherhood firefighters share," Assistant Chief Jim Schmitt said of the event, which was designed to help the department raise money for its 100th anniversary coming in 2013.

The gathering included food and drink, a Scotch sampler, a big screen television and hand-rolled cigars. Those who purchased tickets were given three cigars, the scotch sampler, and food courtesy of the Pine Brook Fire Department. The benefit took place outside the department building on Bloomfield Road.

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Fire Chief Herb Eggers said the event was a chance to celebrate the camaraderie and bond that firefighters share, not only in the township but across the entire country.

"If you were to take several men from several fire departments and send them to a fire, like, say the one that just happened on Tara Lane a couple of weeks ago, each fire fighter would know what to do, because we all have had the same training," he said. "We would know how to work together."

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Pine Brook was one of the departments who responded to the Tara Lane fire on Aug. 31.

For Schmitt and Eggers, firefighting is a family legacy. Both men are sons of firefighters, and both have firefighter sons. Eggers said that, while events like the Cigar Smoke fundraiser have a strong family feeling, both due to blood relation and the bond between departments, they serve as a chance to invite the community into their world.

"We have people from Wayne, Lincoln Park and other departments here today," he said. "In fact I was talking with some people from the Cub Scouts and Montville Troop 74." 

Schmitt said the cigar event was a chance for the firefighters and their families to get together on a night when an emergency is not occurring. 

"We sold tickets for $30 a piece and we sold over 160 tickets," said Schmitt. He said that he expects the event to raise a couple thousand dollars for the Pine Brook Fire Department's centennial. 

Schmitt said that, besides the financial gain for the department, sometimes it is just good for morale to unwind for a night.

"It was just a fine night for us to get out and hang out," he said.

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