Meet Port Jervis Fire Department's 2024 Parade Co-Grand Marshal Jeff Ewing
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelPrevious community service and training, assisting with other departments in the burning of old cabins in Huguenot, NY
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelHoward Wheat Engine Co. No. 4 40-year member Jeff Ewing, as one who has held nearly every position in his company, presents a plaque to Broome Street Band members for their many years of accompanying his company in the PJFD Annual Inspection Day Parade (Jason Csencsits, Jeff Ewing, Al Gessner, Jill Heller)
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelPJFD 173rd Inspection Day Parade Co-Grand Marshal Jeffrey Ewing, forty-year Port Jervis Fire Department fireman and member of Howard Wheat Engine Co. No. 4
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelHoward Wheat Engine Co. No. #4 Safety Presentation May 14, 2016 Port Jervis Safety Day
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelPrevious community service and training, assisting with other departments in the burning of old cabins in Huguenot, NY (Jeff at right with his fellow Hose #4 firefighters)
Photo by Sharon E. Siegel
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelNot only a 40-year volunteer firefighter but Port Jervis' very much appreciated Animal Control officer.
Photo by Sharon E. SiegelThe Ewing Family serves together!
Forty-year firefighter Jeffrey “Jeff” Wayne Ewing has held just about every position in Howard Wheat Engine Co. No. 4, some multiple times. This includes as Captain, 1st Lt., 2nd Lt., President, and currently as Treasurer.
Ewing says he enjoys giving back to the city, sharing a bond with #4’s members, and that he plans to remain a fireman until he dies.
Born in Salem City, Ohio on June 14, 1955, Ewing moved to the area with his family, graduated from Delaware Valley High School, and has lived in Port Jervis since 1981. In 1984, at age 29, he joined the Port Jervis Fire Department and Howard Wheat Engine #4.
“It was by my house, and Tom Lamb (a fellow firefighter) talked me into it,” Ewing recalled of his company choice.
Despite the amount of training required to be a volunteer firefighter today, the decline in membership, and resulting lack of overall manpower and volume of time active firefighters spend, Ewing has never regretted time given in volunteer firefighting service.
“I’m proud to be a member,” he said.
Ewing was able to remain an active firefighter while working in his longtime job as a tool and die maker for Kolmar Laboratories, which he retired from in 2021. He also continues to hold the position of Port Jervis’s Animal Control Officer.
Ewing credits his family for the support they have always given for the use of his time and efforts for the community.
“My family is proud of everything I do for the town,” he said.
Over the years, some of the responses Ewing has been part of include Neversink Lumber and a structure fire on Jersey Avenue and Owen Street on New Year’s Eve.
“Todd Kowinsky and I got pushed out of the building, and Todd got Burnt,” Ewing recalled of the New Year’s Eve fire.
Jeff is married to his wife of many years, Cheryl Ewing. The couple’s children, Michael, Michelle, Laura, and Jeffrey, have also been involved in firefighting.
Ewing encourages anyone interested in being a firefighter to do so, but to be aware of the current time requirements for training. He also advises them to remember lessons they will learn firsthand, including a lesson he himself learned – not to panic.
What will he be thinking of on Parade Day 2024 as he is honored as a Parade Co-Grand Marshal with fellow firefighter Randy Aber?
“Just the honor of being asked,” he said.
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