Blairstown Firefighter Celebrates 79th Birthday

BLAIRSTOWN, NJ - At 79 years old Bob Halberstadt is still bringing the heat.

“It just so happens that I am the oldest firefighter certified one in the state of New Jersey, probably in the United States because most people are retiring at my age and I’m just getting started,” says Blairstown, New Jersey’s Bob Halberstadt.

And as the Warren County resident celebrates a major birthday, turning 79 years old on the Fourth of July, he is also celebrating a major accomplishment; becoming New Jersey’s most senior graduate of the Fire Academy.

“In January, I became aware that they were taking recruits for the warren county fire academy for firefighter one certification,” Halberstadt explains, “So I said, I gave it about 30 seconds worth of thought, and said to the chief, sign me up. At first he thought I was joking...”

In his late 70s, Firefighter Halberstadt pushed through vigorous training that many a quarter of his age couldn’t complete. With 200 plus hours of training under his belt, Blairstown Hose Company #1 welcomed Halberstadt onto the force as a volunteer this month. Add in 25 years of work as an EMT, this recruit came with experience unlike many other applicants.

“I was actually surprised when I was first told of his age. Which was only a couple of months ago when he joined this class,” says Blairstown Ambulance Corps Captain Brian Walsh, “It’s his spirit. I think he is just always up for a joke, always up to help out. Has a thousand stories about everything and I think typically we see a 78-year-old and think okay slowing down, taking it easy, doing a lot of fishing and relaxing. And not Bob. Bob comes to all the calls, he rides his duty nights, he goes to extra calls, he helps out.”

One of those thousand stories is when the former New York Daily News Truck driver made headlines; delivering a baby enroute in the Holland Tunnel back in the early 2000s. Now, Halberstadt is making new headlines, becoming the oldest firefighter in the state of New Jersey and possibly in the country. Never one for the sidelines, now this near 80-year-old won’t be sitting around when that fire horn sounds. His new Chief, Calvin Inscho says, Halberstadt will be one of those fighting fires inside burning buildings.

“I had him pegged around 60 and he definitely does not act 78. He’s very energetic and responds to all the calls and does everything we ask,” says Inscho, “He can respond on all calls that he chooses. If we have a house fire, he’s allowed to get on the hose line and go in that front door and fight the fire until it’s out.”

Being older than most of your fire academy instructors and almost double the age of the oldest recruit can call for certain expectations; or lack thereof. But during the fire academy, Halberstadt intrigued, impressed and ignited a fire in himself and under the behinds of those younger guys beside him...

“Almost everything we do is in full gear at the academy. So, we’re putting on almost 65lbs of equipment,” explains Warren County Fire Academy Instructor Brian Walsh, “We are asking students to climb up and down ladders, climb through windows, up to a third floor window, up off the ladder through the window, and then climb back out. Then climb up over a roof…So he was asked to do all of that and conduct searches inside those buildings under almost zero visibility. He accomplished it all. Everything that the state asks us to do to certify a fireman, Bob did.”

So how did a near 80-year-old freelance photographer, community theater actor, grandfather, EMT and retired truck driver manage to pull this off? “I don’t give it a second thought. I don’t think of myself as aging, I just get up and do what I want to do,” says Halberstadt, “If you start to think of yourself as old, guess what? You’re going to be old. Just don’t think of yourself as old.”

Among 40 other potential firefighters, only 19 graduated and this 79-year-old was one of them; proving age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.