Fire officials set record straight regarding Eatowntown Fire Department

Recently, the Eatontown Fire Department had the displeasure of being the focus of a story involving our fire chief. We would like to start off by saying that if Chief Brian McLaughlin is found guilty of these allegations, we support whatever the letter of the law prescribes. Our problem is not with the reporting of this event per se, but with the perception the pubic seems to have at this time.

Once again, we have fed the meter for yet another 15 minutes of fame. We would like to write the story to the last five minutes. We realize the jokes and ridicule for this recent event will go on as long as an eBay commercial exists or we apply to purchase a radio in the future.

What we would like the public to know is the Eatontown Fire Department — with more than 100 members and the present line officers — is still providing the borough of Eatontown with 24-hour fire and rescue protection.

We’d like the public to know that our members are still continually training to provide services such as fire suppression, building collapse rescue, trench/confined space rescue, Hazmat responses and general public and traffic safety. Oh, and by the way, for many of those who do not know or have forgotten, we are still doing this as volunteers.

We still support many community organizations and youth activities, including Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, Youth Baseball, and Monmouth Regional High School’s Project Graduation yearly.

Many of our members are very active in the community and sit on many committees and boards including the Eatontown Planning Board, civil defense, fire prevention, Office of Emergency Management and Borough Council.

This letter is not intended to imply the media depicted us in a negative way or we are whining about being the center of unfortunate circumstances. We have dealt with this for a second year, and we will survive anything else in the future. We just wanted to set the record straight that the decisions of a few individuals — who happen to be members of our organization — do not imply the rest of the membership is untrustworthy or ethically irresponsible.

It is our honor and pleasure to serve the residents of this town, county and state. We will continue to do so, and will to the best of our ability. Thank you for your time and future support.

Anthony "Bubba" Gaetano

Ex-chief (1999)

Brian M. Denegar

First Lieutenant

Eatontown Fire Department