New Jersey Fire Officials in Trouble Over Botched Drill

EMERSON - Three top volunteer fire officials are facing sanctions from the state after a 2006 live fire drill in a vacant shopping center went awry, requiring the assistance of several departments to douse the flames.

Fire Chief Thomas Carlos, Deputy Chief Mark Savino and Junior Lt. Rich Solimando - who was a borough fire inspector at the time - have been asked to appear before the Borough Council tonight to explain what happened.

Carlos and Solimando met with the Department of Community Affairs' Division of Fire Safety 10 days ago.

Frank Boccio, who oversees fire inspectors as Emerson's fire prevention official, has also been asked to attend.

The April 20, 2006, drill took place at the Pascack Valley Shopping Center on Kinderkamack Road. At the time, the building was empty and slated to be demolished to make way for a new supermarket. The building was later torn down.

Solimando was in charge of the exercise, borough officials said. It is not clear whether the other fire officials were fully aware of the drill, in which no one was injured.

State law requires fire departments to apply for a permit from the Division of Fire Safety before conducting a live fire drill. The application includes a number of safety checks. Mayor Lou Lamatina, who was not in office last year, said he does not believe the proper permit was secured.

Chris Donnelly, a spokesman for the Department of Community Affairs, confirmed that the state has been investigating the incident, but he would not go into details.

Lamatina said that the council wants to find out the details and will consider additional punishment beyond the state-imposed sanctions. He would not elaborate on the nature of the proposed state sanctions.

Council members have expressed irritation that they were not notified of the investigation until 10 days ago.

"The council will question them on what occurred and what they're planning to do on the proposed sanctions," he said. "It's an issue of borough importance and borough safety. We want to find out what happened so we can see if there's anything we can do in the future to prevent something like this from happening."

Carlos did not return a phone call seeking comment. Solimando referred questions to Borough Attorney Phil Boggia, who could not be reached for comment.

Councilman Christopher Heyer, who was the liaison to the Fire Department last year, said he knew of the incident but had been told that it was simply a drill that had gone badly. He said he did not know of the investigation until recently.

"I had heard that they were running a drill, and that the fire did spread, and that other units had to respond," he said. "Before we even begin to speculate whether something was done improperly, we have to speak to the proper people, meaning the firefighters."

E-mail: ax@northjersey.com

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