A volunteer firefighter in a northeastern New Jersey community just across the Hudson River from New York City has been suspended after taking an apparatus out on a joyride with another firefighter.
The Asbury Park Press reports that Ridgefield Park firefighter Connor O'Grady allegedly took a fire department truck out for a ride at about 10 p.m. on July 13 with another firefighter from neighboring Bogota steering the rear of the rig.
The two firefighters struck and damaged a utility pole during the ride, but officials did not become aware of the incident until July 22 when O'Grady came forward about it to his father, who is also a firefighter.
“When they went around a turn, they sideswiped a telephone pole,” said Ridgefield Park Mayor George Fosdick, who is also the city's public safety commissioner. “The best way I could describe it was – they were scared to death and didn’t know what to do.”
After O'Grady confessed the incident to his father, Fire Chief James VanDerTulip filed an accident report with the police and suspended the firefighter for 60 days.
The apparatus sustained damage but was able to remain in service, and no one was injured in the incident.
