New firefighters on the job

The Bloomfield Fire Department has four new firefighters.

They are Kevin Negron, Nick Conforti, Addison Valencia and Charles Pierce. Recently graduated from fire academy, they have been on-duty for only a few weeks.

According to Chief Lou Venezia, the academy usually has a spring and fall class lasting 12 weeks. His department has 78 career personnel and 10-15 volunteer firefighters.

The recent graduates attended the Morris County Public Safety Academy. The overall class, he said, started with 44 recruits with 29 graduating.

All Bloomfield recruits graduated. Recently, the new firefighters were interviewed by this newspaper.

Negron, 30, grew up in Bloomfield and graduated from Bloomfield High School in 2012. He said he wanted to be a firefighter to be of service. He was never a volunteer firefighter, but has cousins with the Newark Fire Department. His aunt is a sergeant with the Newark Police Department and a cousin is a police officer in Hillside.

“I’ve only worked two weeks so far,” he said last week, “so nothing crazy has happened yet. We all just graduated on July 11.”

Negron is single. He has been stationed at the East Passaic station, near St. Valentine’s Church.

He said working the nozzle of a hose, while training at the academy, was a lot harder than he thought it might be.

“Being a firefighter is an extremely physical job,” he said.

“And the gear you wear is heavy, 50 to 60 pounds and more, if you’re carrying tools.”

Conforti, 21, grew up in Bloomfield. A 2021 graduate of Caldwell High School, he wrestled in school and boxes now.

He is single and attended a trade school for heating and air conditioning. He said an uncle and a cousin are firefighters. He has not been a volunteer firefighter and said the work is very exciting.

“You kind of feel like a cowboy riding around on the truck,” he said. “But I was surprised on the job because they wanted me hands-on right away. That was exciting.”

Valencia, 25, grew up in Bloomfield and played defensive end on the high school football team. He also played basketball and volleyball. He graduated in 2017. He has been a Bloomfield volunteer firefighter.

“Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to be of service,” he said.

Valencia is engaged. He has several cousins and uncles that are police officers.

Pierce, 23, grew up in Caldwell and graduated from its high school in 2019. He and Conforti knew each other in school. He played football, basketball and lacrosse.
“My home in Caldwell is around the corner from the firehouse,” he said. “When I was 16, I started volunteering there. Until you’re 18, you can’t go into the firehouse building, so you just do exterior operations. At 18, you can do everything.”

He said it requires state certification to go to a fire as a volunteer firefighter. In Bloomfield, it was pointed out, to be a volunteer, a person has to be 18. Pierce said he still
volunteers in Caldwell.

The firefighters work 24-hour shifts followed by 72 hours off. They will be sworn-in in a public ceremony, the date to be announced.

  bloomfield, Bloomfield Fire Department