WOODLAND PARK – The members of Fire Company 2 are hoping the community will help them to repair their severely flood damaged basement.

The basement of West Paterson Fire Company 2 was severely damaged by flooding from Hurricane Irene. From Left, Assistant Chief Mike Muccio, Donald Hoedemaker, vice president of Fire Company 2, and firefighter Joe DeSomma look at a hole in the basement of their firehouse that was dug to shut of a sewer line that spewed sewage into their basement during the flood.

They fire company took 568 calls during Hurricane Irene while water and sewage flooded their basement, said Assistant Fire Chief Mike Muccio. The firefighters rescued 150 people by boat, he said. They rescued people from flooded cars, put out transformer fires, and answered calls when flooding set house alarms off, he said.

So, Muccio said, they hardly noticed when 14 inches of water and raw sewage flooded their basement during the storm.

“This time, the water table came in so high and we didn’t even know about it because we were out taking calls,” he said. “Calls were coming in left and right.”

But in the meantime, water was shooting out of the wall of their basement, Muccio said. The firefighters lost a supply of uniforms, soda machine, refrigerator, countertops and stove to the storm, he said.

“We were caked with mud down here,” Muccio said, standing in the basement where walls had been ripped out and part of the floor had been torn up because of the flood. “It stank.”

They also lost ceiling tiles to water damage as residual water from fire trucks that were constantly coming in and out of the garage dripped down from the first floor into the basement, Muccio said. And they still have not been able to complete the repairs.

“We’re kind of upside down, inside out here,” he said. “We can’t cook. We can’t clean. We can’t wash our towels.”

Insurance covered $2,200 of the costs to repair and replace destroyed items, but that is not enough to repair or replace everything, Muccio said. And The fire company did not budget for the flood.

“The extra money we had in the fire house, we were expending on other projects and then we got hit with this,” Muccio said.

Those projects included installing an emergency generator, installing energy efficient windows, paying their utilities and paying for the restoration of a fire truck. Their electric bill during the month of the flood was higher than normal, $750, because of the increase in the use of the fire house, he said.

United Fire Sprinkler as well as Advanced Plumbing and Drain Cleaning, both Woodland Park businesses, have already contributed their services to help the fire company clean up from the storm. Muccio hopes more businesses and residents will be able to contribute to their cause, be it monetarily or in the form of services.

“The less we can spend on this, the more we can spend on getting better equipment for our firefighting efforts,” he said. To learn more about how to contribute call 973-345-3899.

E-mail: kadosh@northjersey.com