Hurricane Ida struck Denville on September 1 and 2, 2021. Early in the morning of September 2, the Rockaway River and the Den Brook begin to flood many streets in the center of town. The Denville Fire Department started evacuating the residents from the flooding areas. Assistant Chief Troy Decker was driving the utility truck and had just delivered the boats to the Woodland Avenue area to rescue residents from isolated houses. As the chief began to unload the Zodiac from the trailer, he heard a tree crack behind him and he jumped off the trailer landing on his back and momentarily blacking out from the fall. When he came to, he was entangled in the large tree with electrical wires sparking around him. The 30-foot tree brought down all the power lines and also hit the boats and the boat trailer. When the wires stopped sparking, he was able to climb over the tree and escape the area.
– Fire News photo by the Denville PD; story by Charles Botti
