[ back ]
Little girl's hero gets big honor
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - June 11, 2008)
 |
|
Photo Courtesy Of Donna Mills
Richard Masiello, 67, of Emerson was recently named Volunteer Firefighter of the Year by the Knights of Columbus. Masiello has served as a volunteer firefighter in the borough for 44 years and has no intention of stopping. Masiello is pictured, center, with his grandchildren Katelyn and Tyler Mills.
|
Donna Mills always thought her father was a hero – what little girl doesn’t? And if it ever slipped her mind growing up, she had the late nights and missed holiday dinners to remind her. Mills’ father is Rich Masiello, a longtime volunteer firefighter in the Borough of Emerson.
“He would miss Christmas dinner because someone would have an oven fire,” remembers Mills. “Someone’s basement would get flooded and he’d rush over. I remember staying up late at night listening to the thunder and lightning during a storm, waiting for him to come home.”
Yes, Mills knew her dad was something special, but it wasn’t until she was all grown up with children of her own that she saw he kind of man her father really was.
“I always kind of knew he was a hero but I didn’t realize it until I had an electrical fire in my house a couple of years ago,” Mills, 44, says. “It was nothing serious; no one was hurt. But there was my dad in his full gear. My daughter was in the garage crying and he picked her up and held her and told her everything was going to be OK. I was so proud of him.”
Masiello moved to Emerson from
New York City in 1959 and took up his position as a volunteer firefighter in 1964. He juggled his work for the borough with his full-time job at the Paramus Post Office, from which he recently retired. He’s had his fair share of hard calls – in the early 1970s, he still remembers, a mother and her two babies died in a fire – as well as plenty of happy times with his “brothers” in the department.
Now more than four decades after Masiello joined Emerson’s Volunteer Ambulance Corps, his daughter is not the only one to recognize his passion.
On May 7, Masiello was honored by the Knights of Columbus as Volunteer Firefighter of the Year with a certificate and speeches – and he didn’t want any part of it.
“I said thank you and sat back down. I didn’t really want it,” admits Masiello, a soft-spoken man of 67. “We all do the job. We volunteer to do it. I didn’t want to be singled out.”
But singled out he was, as much for his 44 years of service in the borough’s fire department, including stints as fire chief in 1984 and 1985 and president of the Fireman’s Association, as for his continued dedication.
“He’s got more than 40 years here and he hasn’t given up the ship,” says Fire Chief Mark Savino. “Some guys when they retire, they fade off into the sunset. But not Rich. He really loves it.”
That is something that even modest Masiello cannot deny.
“I always wanted to be a firefighter,” he says. “I won’t step down. Not unless they make me retire.”
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
[ back ]
