Firefighting a family affair
for Old Bridge’s Ritz family
Dinner at the Ritz house is no longer
a sure thing, as a fire call clears the seats
By lori elkins solomon
Correspondent

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Erik Ritz (l) of the South Old Bridge Volunteer Fire Company pulls a line from a fire truck with his father, Robert Jr. and grandfather, Robert.

It is a typical winter’s night in Old Bridge. The Ritz family sits and chats around the kitchen counter. Situated behind them is the living room, with its comfortable couches and a big-screen television.

There is a barely perceptible break in the conversation as the crackling sound of a two-way radio fills the house, or more precisely, the firehouse.

This firehouse, belonging to the South Old Bridge Volunteer Fire Company District No. 3, Engine No. 1, is a second home to the Ritzes. Here, three generations of the family — 72-year-old Robert, 47-year-old Robert Jr. and 22-year-old Erik — serve their community as volunteer firemen.

"There have been times when it was just the three of us on the truck," said Robert Jr., explaining though that since the company has 32 dedicated volunteers, it is rare for all three firemen to be on duty at the same time.

While the eldest Ritz has been a firefighter in Old Bridge for 47 years, the tradition of firefighting in his family actually goes back two more generations.

"My grandfather was a volunteer fireman in Highland Park for years and years," he said. "We lived with him at the time. It just rubbed off."

In 1955, Robert Ritz moved to Old Bridge, where he joined the fire department. His decision to become a fireman was a simple one. He was not looking to be a hero; he just enjoyed the challenges presented by the job.

"Why did I do it? Because I wanted to do it. I just enjoy fighting fire," he said. "We help people with extrications, wet cellars, putting banners up, iguanas in trees, anything they call us for. I’m just tickled pink to go out and help them."

Robert Jr. recalled what it was like growing up with a father in the Old Bridge fire department.

"I remember being involved with the fire department as long as I’ve been around, as long as I’ve been alive. It was always a part of my life," he said. "I remember picnics at the firehouse, coming down and playing on the fire engines, just everything that a kid would do. Some kids would say they would go with their father to work, and I would say I was down at the firehouse."

When Robert Jr. was 19 years old, his father came home one day and matter-of-factly handed him an application for the fire department. Some people might think that joining the fire department would be a major decision in a young man’s life, but Robert Jr. says that for him, as it was for his father, it was "just natural progression."

"Was I planning to do it? I can’t say I was planning to do it. It’s something you’re with all your life. It wasn’t a surprise to me. It was like ‘OK, it’s my time to do it.’ I knew it was something I would do," Robert Jr. recalled.

Like his father, Robert Jr.’s love for firefighting comes simply from enjoying the things he does.

"What I get out of it is just like anything. You get out of it what you put into it. I sit back sometimes and I think about it, and I ask myself, why am I doing this? But, you know, if I stopped, I would miss it. I just want to be here and do what I can do," Robert Jr. said.

When his father joined the fire department, the majority of fires in Old Bridge were brush fires. However, by the time Robert Jr. joined, Old Bridge became more residential, resulting in many house fires as well.

"When I came into the fire department here, we were running 1,000 to 1,500 fire calls a year," Robert Jr. recalled. "You could come down here any time of the day or night and spend 15 minutes, and you’d go out on at least one fire."

Fortunately, now that most homes have smoke detectors, the number of house fires has decreased. However, suburban development has brought about a variety of other tasks for firefighters, such as inspecting gas leaks and rescuing workmen from collapsed utility trenches.

While the variety of challenges by firefighters has increased, the technology for dealing with these dangers has become more advanced. For example, when Robert started out as a firefighter, communications technology was still being developed.

"We had four engines and we had two radios, but you had to talk to Freehold and Freehold would talk to the other engine and then back to Freehold. And so it was a process," Robert said, describing a typical scenario in the earlier days of firefighting here in central New Jersey. "But now everyone has a radio, so when we go out on the fire scene, we can communicate back and forth."

Another improvement is in safety equipment. Nowadays, firefighters are provided with protective gear and helmets, along with a self-contained breathing apparatus and equipment to test for toxins in the atmosphere.

While firefighting has evolved in many ways over the past few decades, the events of a single day — Sept. 11 — have brought about revolutionary changes in just a few months. These events have perhaps had the greatest impact on young firefighters like Erik, who had joined the fire department just four months prior to the terrorist attacks of that day.

Erik originally became a volunteer firefighter because he was a self-proclaimed "adrenaline junkie."

"I think beforehand I was a little bit more laid back. You know, this is cool, let’s go have fun, let’s go and play with water and hose and everything," the younger Ritz man said of his first few months in the fire department. "And now you have to sit back and sometimes say, ‘Well, is something else going to go off? Is this just the first thing, or is a secondary thing going to happen?’ "

With Erik’s maturity as a firefighter is an even greater desire to follow in the accomplished footsteps of his grandfather and father.

"My certifications are piling up," Erik said. "I finished a class to become a hazmat (hazardous materials) technician. I’m going back in April to get certified in confined spaces. Hopefully I can get a page up in the profession doing something like this too."

Describing what it is like to be the wife — and now the mother — of a firefighter, Robert Jr.’s wife Irene told what it is like to sit down to dinner only to have the fire alarm ring.

"There you are with the kids, dinner, and the husband’s gone," she said. "Now, you go to put dinner on the table and the husband and the son are gone. It’s scary. It’s scarier when a mother looks at her son going out the door, especially now after September 11th."

Despite her fears, Irene is proud of her loved ones.

"No amount of worrying is really going to change anything," she said. "You just have to have the faith that they’re going to know what they’re doing, and they’re going to be safe doing it, and they’re going to go out and get the job done."