Pequannock said goodbye to long-serving Fire Chief Edwin Ver Hage with one last call as he was laid to rest under an arch of extended firetruck ladders on Saturday.
The retired volunteer firefighter died on Feb. 1 at age 88.
Ver Hage's funeral procession rode past his home and made a stop at the Engine Company 2 firehouse, where two trucks were waiting with ladders extended into the sky as a call went out across the public address systems and pagers calling for Ver Hage.
“This was his last call, the very last call that he had to answer,” said Richard Hughes, who called the late chief his stepfather. Ver Hage served as chief of Engine Company 2 for 20 years, Hughes said.
“The Fire Department was his extended family,” Hughes said.
Born in 1930 in Prospect Park, Ver Hage was the son of Kryn and Henriette Ver Hage. The Hawthorne High School Class of 1949 graduate married Pequannock’s Barbara Courter one year after graduation, and they settled in the Pompton Plains section of town. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1955 and served four years in Germany before he returned home to work at Braen Stone Industries.