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By MARGARET K. COLLINS
Herald News (Passaic County, NJ)
They were the best of friends. It didn’t matter that three decades separated them in age because a strong bond was forged.
Over those years, Pompton Falls Fire Company 3 became their second home and family. Glenn “Galdo” Galderisi and Bill Klein were volunteer firefighters together for more than 30 years. A painting of the two men was hung in the firehouse on Jackson Avenue this month.
In February 2004, after responding to two false alarms, Galderisi, age 52, suffered a fatal heart attack.
Klein, 83, was with him in the firehouse when he died, moments after putting some equipment away. Klein and Galderisi had gone to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee - a routine they repeated at least three or four times a week - earlier that morning, Klein recalled.
“Glenn took care of Bill and Bill took care of him,” said Scottie Kroegman, the oldest and longest-serving member of the Pompton Falls auxiliary. (The auxiliary provides food and coffee to the firefighters when at the scene, said Fire Company 3 President Dave Citer.)
Klein joined in 1946, months after returning from Europe after military duty in World War II. He served as a fire commissioner and fire chief. No longer fighting fires, but still attending firehouse meetings, Klein is the company’s oldest living member.
Galderisi became a full-fledged member in 1973, after serving a couple of years as a junior firefighter. He later held the positions of township fire commissioner, assistant fire chief and head of the Pompton Falls Junior Fire Department, which brought teenagers into the firehouse.
When Klein began volunteering, the company had two shiny red fire trucks.
“Back when I first started, they cost $7,000 to $8,000,” Klein said of the trucks. “These new trucks are unbelievable. They don’t even have a stick shift.”
When there was a fire, Klein said, sirens blew to alert members and the red phone in the firehouse rang. Often they got called out for drownings and brush fires.
“Now there’s not too many drownings in the local lakes because people have pools,” Klein said. “And there’s no brush left. Everything’s developed.”
Today, pagers and computers route calls and notify members of bad accidents and fires. The firehouse now has four trucks. The newest shiny red ones cost as much as $650,000.
Much changed in the 30-plus years of service by Galderisi and Klein. But their friendship, pictured in the mural now hanging in their home away from home, endured and only grew stronger over time.
The 7-foot-by-5-foot acrylic mural of Galderisi was painted and donated by artist Kim DeAngelo of Wayne, a childhood friend of Galderisi’s brother, Vic. DeAngelo said she worked from a photo taken of Galderisi when he first joined the firehouse in the early 1970s.
“His favorite fire truck is off to his right shoulder and he was really into the American flag, so that’s why I chose the big flag in the background,” DeAngelo said.
Klein drove the truck to one of the worst fires he and Galderisi fought together, Klein said. It was at the W.R. Grace building some 20 years ago.
“Being together in the fires,” Kein said, “made us close friends.”