By Lucas K. Murray
The Gloucester County Times
DEPTFORD TWP., N.J. — It’s not a call you would expect to hear over a police and fire scanner following the signals for emergency responders — “Delsea Drive, at the New Sharon Fire Company, a building fire, all hands working.”
Now, at least $448,000 of money meant to rebuild the burnt-out station is said to be missing. The Times has learned from sources outside the department that the matter is being investigated at the federal level.
Attorney Michael Silvanio confirmed that he has been retained by former New Sharon Fire Co. president and treasurer Charles Mancini III.
“I’m in the process of trying to get as much info as I can to help him out,” said Silvanio. “The FBI has not provided any evidence or documentation. We’ve had an open line of communication.”
The FBI has neither confirmed nor denied an investigation.
Mancini was expelled from New Sharon last month after its membership voted him out for breach of trust and misappropriation of funds.
The initial story was heroic enough — a fire sparked inside the aging building on a cold night in December 2008. It spread, endangering tens of thousands of dollars worth of gear and two trucks inside the building. Crews from all four battalions of Deptford firefighters answered the call.
One smoldering fire truck was driven through a closed garage window held shut by a fried electrical system. Crews worked frantically to remove the 30 sets of fireproof bunker gear from the burning structure.
Once the fire was under control, the firehouse was destroyed and a home-away-from-home was permanently lost for more than a dozen men and women tasked with protecting the lives and property of residents. But what unfolded over the next few months is a tale of even more loss — more than half a million dollars in missing money.
The damaged building on Delsea Drive has stayed vacant for 16 months. The money that was to go toward its demolition and reconstruction has simply disappeared, according to Company President Robert Dessin Jr.
“A few of us started doing some investigating of our own and he pretty much drained our account of the $448,000, plus all the funds we had prior to the fire,” Dessin alleged of the former treasurer, whom he would not mention by name. “He left us completely flat broke.”
Dessin and the company members could not confirm whether an investigation is being conducted by the FBI.
They could, however, talk of what their operation has been going through since the fire.
“That’s all of our second homes,” said Dessin of the burnt-out structure. “We’re all family here. We have our families at home, but we also have a family here. We lost our house.”
Lost in the fire was the building itself, a 1978 brush truck and the 1992 E-1 pumper that was rolled out of the house the night of the fire.
Members of the company contend that insurance money was rolling in three days after the blaze, only they never knew they were receiving it.
As such, the company has had to scrape, beg and borrow to cover their expenses. They stopped receiving the regular municipal funding that they would have been given if they had a station.
Normally, the Deptford Fire District allocates $36,800 to keep trucks in the house. That line item was eliminated once the company was displaced.
“We’re still trying to figure it all out,” said New Sharon Secretary Frank Ellis Sr. “It’s definitely well over half a million (missing). Bills that were supposed to have been paid, we’re finding out that they have not been paid.”
Ellis Sr. has been collecting the mail in the past few months. Previously, only the treasurer had been in charge of the company’s post office box. The same holds true for the various bank accounts that were taken out in the New Sharon name.
Officials are still having problems accessing the accounts as only one name — Mancini’s — is accepted for access to banking records.
Canceled checks and other receipts show a massive paper trail. Dessin said an elaborate series of delays kept them from getting everything sorted out earlier.
“There was always an excuse for everything,” said Battalion Chief Frank Ellis Jr. “Something missing from prints. All the excuses seemed really plausible.”
Right now, the biggest hindrance for the career staff and the dozen or so other active members is the training aspect. They’ve had to go out to other companies to work on their skills. Sometimes, they’re even drilling out in the street.
“The taxpayers still have the same level of protection that they did before, but I don’t think we’re nearly as efficient as we used to be,” Ellis Jr. said.
Officials are fairly certain the fire started in an electrical closet at the aging facility. Just how it started has yet to be released to the public. The fire marshal for the county who first handled the case never filed a report on the fire. He no longer works for the county.
His replacement toured the firehouse earlier this year.
If there is bright side to all of this, one of the three trucks that made runs out of the station went out for warranty service on the morning of the fire and was spared the fate of the others.
The pumper that was destroyed has been replaced and delivered. It’s being stationed at another firehouse on Tanyard Road while the remaining Quint unit is being held at the township’s MUA building, manned by paid firefighters a mile away.
But, “The trust factor we had. Everything looked legit, we never questioned anything. We got taken to the cleaners real bad,” Dessin said.
The company has since reworked its bylaws, which now require four signatures for any checks to be paid from its account. The only snag is, the account is empty.
“We have an architect, we have a structural engineer,” Dessin said. “The problem is, we have no money. They’re working with us the best they can.”
Only when the building comes down can the New Sharon Fire Co. start anew.
What they’re not doing is asking the taxpayers of Deptford for a bailout, instead relying on donations, fundraisers and state and federal grants to get back up and running.
They would have held their annual Easter flower sale next month, but have no place to host it. It usually covers their insurance premium. Someone made a donation of nearly $6,000 to cover the tab, however.
When New Sharon members were asked the emotions they’re going through over the missing cash, anger and disbelief first come to mind.
“You have to trust your life with these people. To think that one of them is going to steal from you like that,” Ellis Jr. said. “It’s disgusting.”
If you’d like to help rebuild the firehouse, contact the New Sharon Fire Co., PO BOX 5194, Deptford, NJ 08096.