By RICHARD COWEN
NorthJersey.com
BUTLER, N.J. — Death has once again visited the Fire Department, and the town is in mourning as it readies for Saturday’s burial of the fourth firefighter to die within a year.
Paul Rattalino Jr., a lifelong Butler resident and a 23-year member of the Fire Department, was killed in a car crash on Route 80 on Monday afternoon. Rattalino, 47, and a heavy equipment operator at Picatinny Arsenal, was on his way home from work when his pickup truck struck a utility pole on Route 80 eastbound and smashed into the guardrail. Rattalino died at the scene.
On Tuesday, firefighters prepared for Rattalino’s funeral procession, which will begin at the Morrison Funeral Home on Bartholdi Avenue on Saturday at 10 a.m. A Mass will be said at St. Anthony of Padua R.C. Church, down the street from the funeral home.