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09/21/2016 08:30 AMFollowing in his family’s footsteps, Ken Neubig leads Northford Volunteer Fire Co. 2.
The North Branford native, who has held Co. 2’s annually elected top post of company captain and president for the past 15 years, first joined up as a volunteer 33 years ago at age 18.
Ken, his brother Dave, and even Ken’s wife, Toby (Carol), are all continuing a family tradition of volunteering as firefighters with Co. 2. It’s the same company which was once served by Ken’s grandfather Charles, a charter member, and his father William.
“My family’s been involved for years and years. My grandfather was one of the first members in 1944 and my father had 50 active years. My brother, who’s a little younger than me, probably has 30 years in, and my wife also probably has 30 years as a firefighter/EMR [Emergency Medical Responder],” says Ken.
Ken and Toby, who’s also a North Branford native, are raising their twins, a son and daughter now 15 ½, in town, and their son is already showing an interest in getting involved with North Branford junior firefighting programming.
Northford Co. 2 is one of four volunteer companies which make up the North Branford fire services force. Being a volunteer firefighter has changed dramatically since the days when Charles Neubig helped start this company, Ken notes.
“We have as much training as a career department. We’re held to the same standards,” says Ken. “We have a drill every Monday night and we combine train, too. We’re very fortunate to have the new fire training facility in town. It’s state of the art and gives us a spot to do a lot more training.”
Ken says community-minded people interested in volunteering are encouraged to get involved, commit to training, and continue assisting well into the future.
“It’s evolving all the time, especially after Sept. 11,” 2001, said Ken of the training required.
While there has been a rotating roster of volunteers in the years the Ken’s been a part of Co. 2, year after year, the volunteers have elected him their captain. Ken is only the sixth captain to serve in Co. 2’s 60 year-history.
“I think it’s because he leads by example,” says his wife, Toby. “He puts his tools down in the middle of the day to get to calls, he gets up in the middle of the night. He’s a man of few words, but he sets the example with his actions.”
Like other volunteer fire companies, Co. 2 bands together as an organization to maintain the firehouse, located on Middletown Avenue in the Northford village center.
“This building is owned by the firemen,” says Ken. “The town does lease it from us, but we give it to them at a bargain rate, which helps keep the taxes down, which helps the community. We have fundraisers, like our golf tournament, to maintain the building.”
The Town of North Branford owns the firefighting equipment, tools, and apparatus, including the most recent addition arriving at Co. 2 a little more than a month ago, a tactical heavy rescue truck, North Branford Fire Dept. Engine 2.
Over years of involvement, North Branford’s volunteer firefighters invest thousands of hours in training. About 25 to 30 active members presently serve Company 2, with some 100 active members in companies across town.
“Everybody plays a part,” says Ken, whose role has long included company leadership. Just a couple of years after joining, his peers elected Ken to the rank of second lieutenant, then first lieutenant, followed by naming him captain.
“There’s a great bunch of people below me that makes the job much easier,” says Ken. “It takes all types. One guy might be great at firefighting, one person might be great at medical calls, another one great at fundraising, another one at building maintenance. We all work together to keep it going.”
Like all volunteers, Ken’s tied to the department with a beeper he keeps with him, and also via cell phone text communications linked in to emergency calls. In August, Co. 2 responded to a motor vehicle accident at the Potato & Corn Festival site and came upon one of their own.
“He was on a motorcycle and was hit by a car,” says Ken, who was away with his family on that day. “Our guys got over to the scene, and it was our guy. It was a pretty bad accident.”
Co. 2’s long-serving treasurer, Billy Canning, had been struck by a vehicle while riding his motorcycle. The terrible accident has resulted in a permanent disability for Canning, involving the partial loss of one leg. Right now, Co. 2 is rallying to assist the Canning family. Ken says Canning is in “good spirits and strong willed,” and set to begin recovery at home. The department, led by Ken, is helping out, beginning with upgrading a bathroom in the home for accessibility.
“Ken sent out a text message and said, ‘Let’s do this do this for Billy,’ and he had eight guys, right away, who wanted to do their best to help,” says his wife, Toby.
Community donations are being accepted via Co. 2 to assist the Canning family; checks can be sent with “Billy Canning” in the memo c/o Northford Volunteer Fire Dept. Co. 2 1370 Middletown Ave, Northford, CT 06472.
When he’s not leading Co. 2, fighting fires, responding to motor vehicle accidents, or otherwise helping his community at an incident scene, Ken’s running his North Branford building contracting business, Neubig Building. He also lends Toby a hand with their North Branford horse farm, Carriage Stone Farm, which Toby oversees. Ken built the horse farm in 1996, at the corner of Totoket and Augur Road.
With a family tree that includes the Augurs (his grandmother was one of 13) combined with the Neubig name, Ken is certainly a solid North Branford native, notes Toby, who met her husband shortly after they both graduated from North Branford High School.
“It’s hard to be a resident in this town and not know a few of the family names. Augur’s a name that you know; and I think Neubig’s a name that you know,” says Toby, who followed Ken’s North Branford High School graduation by a few years, and joined Co. 2 at age 17.
Toby’s maiden name, Civitello is one that’s well recognized at Co. 2 as her dad is also a volunteer firefighter.
“It’s great that we both have dads as part of the company,” says Toby. “My dad was probably in his 40s when he joined, and Ken’s dad was here as a kid. He was here when they were building this place.”
“When this firehouse was built, several of the members put their houses up for collateral to go to bank for a loan,” adds Ken. “You won’t see that done today. It shows they were in it for the long run, and they were going to make it happen with their fundraising—and they did.”
His dad, who also held a leadership role in Co. 2, later helped lead construction of the building addition to enlarge garage space. Ken recalls assisting him to add in a peaked roof and cupola.
As a member of Co. 2 for more than three decades, “I think I’ve learned a little bit from everybody I’ve worked with,” says Ken. “And you can’t do it without your other officers or everyone in your company. You put it together and make it work. I came into this to help my neighbor and help the community, and that’s the best part of it for me.”