Mayor Baraka, members of the Newark Municipal Council, Fire Director James W. Stewart, and Fire Chief John G. Centanni formally restored Engine Company 16 to active service in a ceremony, Wednesday, March 11th, at the company’s firehouse, located at 469-473 Ferry Street.
The Engine Company, taken out of service in 2010 for budgetary reasons, was restored to active duty with the assistance of a Federal Emergency Management Agency S.A.F.E.R. (Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response) Grant. The company is positioned to be first response to emergency incidents to residences and small businesses in the City’s East Ward, Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark Seaport, Conrail’s Oak Island Rail Yard, oil refineries, and many of the chemical manufacturing and processing plants located in that area. Engine 16 also responds to emergencies on Route 1 and 9, New Jersey Turnpike and Route 78.
At the ceremony, Mayor Baraka and other dignitaries commended the firefighters from Engine 16 and other units that responded to the Doremus Avenue industrial blaze on Monday evening, for their professionalism and rescue of four civilians. The cause of that blaze remains under investigation.
Engine 16 was first placed into service on December 16, 1901, at 542 or 554-556 East Ferry Street, under Capt. Isaac W. Van Houten, who commanded one lieutenant and eight Firefighters, manning an 1887-built horse-drawn Amoskeag steamer unit and a 1901-built Champion Babcock chemical engine and hose wagon. The company became a motorized unit in 1923.
The company’s sole line-of-duty death was Capt. John J. Wagner. On January 3, 1929, he was fighting a fire on the roof of Central Stamping Company at 591 Ferry Street, when a brick-and-steel smokestack fell onto the roof, collapsing it and fatally knocking him to the ground. The company gained its first mascot in 1959, a dalmation named “Duke.”
