By Jason Nark
The Philadelphia Daily News
CAMDEN, N.J. — No amount of scrubbing will ever wash away the scent of charred wood from Rob Scott’s memory.
Scott, a lifelong Camden resident, said that the smoke, the ringing alarms and the wailing engines will probably wake him from his sleep in the coming weeks.
“I know I’ll be jumping out of bed, out of instinct,” the 30-year-old said yesterday morning, wearing his thick turnout coat and helmet. “It really hit me when I cleaned out my locker.”
In the course of a few hours yesterday, Scott went from being a firefighter to an ex-firefighter, after Camden enacted its plan to lay off police officers, firefighters and other city employees because of a budget crisis.
Scott also had the unfortunate distinction of being laid off while injured: He sprained his ankle and tore ligaments after slipping off a ladder truck in November. He was a member of Ladder 3, in East Camden, a company that began in 1900.
Scott, who is not married and doesn’t have children, made the eight-block journey from the Camden Fraternal Order of Police Lodge to the Fire Administration Building on crutches, his right foot skimming over the inch of dirty snow on the streets as he slowly made his way.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I was going to walk out of this place for another 20 years,” he said.
Scott faded to the back of the procession, but by the time he hobbled his way to the administration building, a crowd of firefighters awaited. Scott was the first of the ex-firefighters to walk through the applauding crowd to lay his helmet down in front of the garage doors.
With his bachelor’s degree in prelaw from Rowan University, Scott said that he debated whether to join the Police or Fire Department after graduating. Yesterday, he leaned against a fire engine in the big, smoke-scented garage, with no regrets.
“I just thought I could help more in the Fire Department,” he said. “I wanted to be a part of this city. I grew up here and I bought a house here - I didn’t leave.”
By noon, Scott had turned in his helmet, his badge and his uniform. The thick turnout coat with “R Scott” stitched across the bottom and five years’ worth of smoke soaked in was placed in a plastic bag and carried over to a large pile of bags in the corner of the garage.
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