Like Father, Like Daughter: Volunteering With Matawan Fire Services

Ever since Jessica Michitsch was a baby, she has been surrounded by emergency response personnel.

Her parents, Rich and Tammy, worked on the Emergency Medical Service and when she was just six months old, she stayed over night with her parents at the station during a terrible storm.

Rich, who is now a captain at Matawan Borough Fire Department Midway Hose Company No. 2, is proud to welcome his daughter Jessica Michitsch, 16, into the department as a junior firefighter and his wife, Tammy, onto the Fire Police.

"I'm glad Jessica is coming up in my footsteps and becoming a firefighter. It's a great thing for the town. It's one more person we have," Rich said.

It's possible, however, that Jessica Michitsch is even more proud.

"I've wanted to join since 2001," she said, which would have made her 6-years-old. "I remember when he was doing the academy and I made him a clay firefighter when he finished. Ever since then I've wanted to join because it's something that women don't do."

Rich is not the only Matawan Borough Fire Department father to be welcoming female members of his family.

M.E. Haley Hose Company No. 1 Deputy Chief Peter Berliner's daughter, Jessica, 19, joined as a member of the Fire Police. Berliner, who graduated from Matawan Regional High School in 1975, became a firefigher after high school. He met a father of a teacher at a football game, and the man nagged him throughout the game about joining.

"I kept "yes-ing" him throughout the game, you know, I was just there to watch football," Peter said. He was shocked when the man arrived at his home the next morning with an application to join the fire department.

All three women were officially appointed to their roles at the Oct. 18 meeting of the Matawan Borough Council.

The role of a junior firefighter is to assist the fire department and to learn as much as possible. Although they cannot help put out the fire, since they are under eighteen and have not yet gone to the fire academy, they are able to help get tools on and off the truck and do some of the training with the men.

"I can help the guys get tools off the truck; I can help repack the hose; I can help take hose off the truck," Jessica Michitsch said. "Basically anything the chiefs need, if I need to go talk to Fire Police, help the guys change out their bottles. Until I get to go to academy when I'm 18."

A moment, she said, that she cannot wait for.

The role of a member of the Fire Police involves doing everything possible to assist the fire department. In the case of a fire, they may bring firefighters water, food or a change of clothes. They may watch a family's personal items as they are removed from a burned home, or they may direct traffic in order to keep members of the emergency personnel services safe. In the case of the accident on on Tuesday night, Jessica Berliner help block off the street and redirect traffic down New Brunswick Avenue.

Even though Jessica Michitsch has known almost all her life that she wanted to follow in her father's footsteps, Jessica Berlinger's journey to the Fire Police was a little different.

After attending college for a year, she was not sure what she wanted to major in or what she wanted to do. She decided to take a break from school, and chose to join the Fire Police

"Even though I grew up with it, I had no interest in it," she said. "When I started out it was something to do. But it's exciting; you get amped up when you're around it."

Both the Fire Police and the junior firefighter positions give them a chance to decide what they enjoy and how far they want to go.

"It gives them some exposure before putting a lot of time in to see whether they want to continue or not," Tammy said.

Tammy, Rich, Peter and both Jessicas all agreed on the best part of volunteering with emergency services - comradery.

"It's that sense of family. It's not just that we all get here at 4 a.m. for a call, it's that we get here to help each other out, at any time. We come to be with each other" Jessica Michitsch said.

According to Peter and Rich, all of the volunteer emergency services are hurting for volunteers because many people have to work multiple jobs or take care of children while a spouse works multiple jobs.

Most people who join, they said, have a family member - whether a brother, father or cousin - who is in the fire department.

"I wouldn't expect anyone to spend as put into it. But if you can give one, two calls that helps out so much. And its going to come down to one day there's going to be a fire if there's not enough people you're going to have a rough time," Rich said.