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NEWTON — Surveillance video released Friday shows fire inside a plastic ashtray melting the container and setting a wooden deck area on fire at the Newton Moose Lodge 432 on Swartswood Road in Fredon July 15.

Sussex County Fire Marshal Virgil Rome said it is clear from the video that the fire began inside the plastic base of the ashtray, melted through and then spread along the wooden deck.

Another picture released by Rome and taken by one of the arriving fire units, shows the wooden deck and lattice on fire and the flames just getting into the eaves. The main building is concrete block, but there was fire damage to the roof and, of course, the deck.

Rome said the fire was reported by four different sources, all calling 9-1-1 at 3:04 a.m. One was a neighbor, two were passersby on Swartswood Road and the fourth was the building's automatic fire alarm.

The building, which is just over the border between Newton and Fredon, brought an immediate mutual aid response from Fredon, Stillwater and Hampton units with an immediate second alarm involving Newton, Andover Township and Green departments.

Montague also dispatched their air truck, a unit which has equipment to fill air tanks used by firefighters.

In addition to the fire departments, EMS units from Fredon, Lakeland and Newton also responded.

Firefighters were able to stop the fire just as it was getting into the roof structure although the deck was destroyed. There was also smoke and water damage to the inside of the building.

Rome said the time stamp on the video is off by nearly two hours because the system's clock was not reset for Daylight Savings Time and there have been short power outages due to summer storms in recent months.

"But (the video) is clear as to the cause," he said. The ashtrays have a collection space at the bottom and a tube, often three feet long, through which cigarette butts can be put in the container.

The type of ashtray is often used at building entrances or, as was the case here, at an outdoor area where smoking is allowed.

"But people don't put out their cigarettes," he said. "And other people use them for trash, like candy wrappers, small pieces of paper."

The outdoor ashtrays come in metal and plastic models. But even the metal ones can catch fire inside under the right conditions and heat transmitted through the metal can ignite flammable material around the outside.

The video shows the plastic melting and burning as the burning and melting plastic spreads along the wooden deck. The video clip released is less than two minutes from the first visible glow to the stream of burning plastic and deck.

There were no injuries reported.

The lodge's annual Clam Bake has been moved to the Newton VFW post on Mill Street, at the intersection with Swartswood Road. The event will be held on Aug. 13 from 2-5 p.m.

The lodge will reopen to members on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning Tuesday, under a tent in the parking lot with a limited menu. The county's Board of Health has approved the tents for summer and fall use according to the lodge's Facebook page.

NEWTON, NJ – Newton area alumni have earned accolades and degrees from their colleges and universities.

Jared Hansen honored at Political Science and Economics Honor Societies induction ceremonies at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.

Aditya Sambyal was installed into Phi Kappa Phi honor society at University of Maryland.

Erika Mendina-Munzo inducted into the Geography Honor Society Mu Kappa Chapter of Gamma Theta Upsilon, at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

East Stroudsburg University announced Jaren Hansen, Emily Jimenez, Katarina Maio, Kathleen Ruffino and Ashley VanHoorebeke received their degrees on May 8.

Dylan Preston Harlos earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, Sociology: Criminology from Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester New Hampshire announced Donald Peterson, Quinn Kramer, Frederick DePue and Daniel Gorczynski earned a place on the Dean’s List for the winter 2022 semester.

Greta Nappa was named to the Dean’s List for the spring 2022 semester at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania.

Madison Rambowski qualified for the Dean’s List for the spring 2022 semester at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania announced Dylan Kuipers earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering, Breanna Ebisch earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and Jacob Hubbard received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Criminology.

Ebisch, Kuipers, Hubbard and Timothy Hendershot were on the Dean’s List at Wilkes University for the 2022 spring semester.

Olivia O’Brien earned a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business at Grove City College in Pennsylvania.

Katie Miller and Olivia O’Brien were named to the Dean’s List for the 2022 spring semester at Grove City College.

Timothy Ervey graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania.

Vaughn Corpus, majoring in music and political science and Courtney Deciuceis majoring in psychology were on the Dean’s List for the spring 2022 semester at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania.

The University of Scranton in Pennsylvania announced 2022 graduates:

Olivia Miller, majoring in public communication, was on the Dean’s List for the 2022 spring semester at University of Vermont in Burlington.

Cole Longcor was named to the Dean’s List for the 2022 spring semester at Marietta College in Ohio. Longcor is pursuing a degree in journalism/broadcasting and political science.

Bloomsburg University announced Dean’s List for the 2022 spring semester:

Stephanie Block, majoring in special education early childhood,

Gianna Giordano, majoring in primary teacher education,

Brendon Read, majoring in exercise science,

Samantha Samiljan, majoring in medical imaging,

Brianna Dul earned a Bachelor of Science degree in exercise science from the College of Charleston in South Carolina.

NEWTON — The printing presses have been replaced by work benches. The walls now shine white, giving the impression of a NASA "clean" room. On the loading dock are wooden crates holding multi-million dollar equipment, rather than bundles of 50-cent each newspapers.

Where once editors talked about "column inches" of copy, Siegfried Mueller, the new owner of 2 Spring St., talks about "parts per billion," and quality control for the U.S. Air Force and Space Force, and building machines which can "see" just what is emanating from the process of changing a landfill in Puerto Rico into new "green power" generation, and knowing just what is inside a bottle of Coca-Cola.

Founded 21 years ago, Mueller's company, Analytical Science & Technologies, has outgrown its non-descript building on Route 94 across the street from the Frelinghuysen Township School. His search ended when the New Jersey Herald went through ownership changes and a pandemic emptied its office, putting the 1960s-era building adjacent to the 1860s-era Sussex County Courthouse, on the market.

What ever happened to...all those Charlie Brown's Steakhouses in NJ? Here's our running list

The building was sold by Gatehouse Media when the company bought the Herald. Gatehouse merged with Gannett in 2019.

A Newton developer bought the property from Gatehouse with an eye toward converting the building into offices and a medical facility. The pandemic caused those plans to fall through and the Herald's office staff began working from home.

The developer put the building back on the market and Mueller found the structure;s two-story-tall pressroom and two levels of office space perfect for the new corporate headquarters for his company, with clients world-wide. There is a second laboratory which serves as West Coast office is in Vancouver, Washington.

According to Sussex County tax records, the purchase price last fall was $1.8 million.

So what is Analytical Science & Technologies? "We consult and build equipment for the food and beverage industry, semi-conductors manufacturers who need ultra-high purity; medical and pharmaceutical companies and the military," he explained.

As examples, the company's equipment constantly tests for any impurities in the oxygen which high-altitude aircraft crews breathe; clean and purify pipes which carry high pressure rocket fuel to launch sites; monitor how many molecules of "other" gas are in the neon, argon and nitrogen used by a variety of companies.

And, yes, there is testing apparatus made in northwestern New Jersey which peers through every bottle of Coke to be sure it contains the right ingredients in the right ratios so the consumer can "Taste the Feeling" and get "Real Magic."

Mueller, who prefers to walk barefoot even when he's in the office, is a native of Fredon where, he laughs, "My mother couldn't make me wear shoes. I went barefoot all the time."

It was also his mother who took him and his sister on trips to places around the world, giving the young Mueller a multi-cultural view of the world. He graduated from Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., then obtained masters and doctorate degrees from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

"I guess I grew up with the dream to clean-up toxic waste sites," the 52-year-old Mueller said. But that was as a heavy-equipment operator. His company, with a staff of 20, had outgrown the building in Warren County and now is expanding to 30 employees and, he said, "We will likely be at 50 in the next five years."

The move into the Newton building is far enough along that the company recently took down the New Jersey Herald sign which spread across the parapet of the building. Also gone are the New Jersey Herald plaques on the small brick signs on Spring Street and Mill Street entrances.

He said, however, he will be memorializing the Herald with a bronze plaque on the building which might be unveiled when there is a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony as the move nears completion.

Mueller said the company now "operates in every geography in the world," has major projects in China and Malaysia.

"Newton is a great spot," he said, "Everything that happens in the world, is happening in New Jersey.

"And this building is nearly perfect." Sitting in what was the reception area of the second-floor former newsroom he said, "And that view. Yeah."

The company's view, however, is focused down to the molecular, and even electron, level.

The company's equipment can detect particles on "PPB, PPT, and even PPQ level," he said, that means "parts per billion, trillion and quadrillion. As an example, he said the detectors can pick up 20 ppb of benzine in a sample of carbon dioxide.

As an example of just how exact that is, Mueller said it's like picking out 20 individual grains of sand from a five-gallon pail of "pure" white beach sand, "when what you are looking for is beige."

Mueller is a believer in technology education, noting he has a working relationship with Sussex County Technical High School, and is looking to create similar relationships with both the county community college and Thorlabs, working on the need for higher education and training in the workforce.

"We all have the same goal. We are going to need these young people to come into what we are doing here. We can all move forward," he said

As an example of using modern technology, the company's detection equipment uses the unique properties of various gasses and, along with cloud computing and cataloguing, has created a "fingerprinting" system, able to identify where a particular sample of gas was created.

"Some of what (impurities) we are looking for are regulatory," he said of food and drink samples. "Some are sensory. You don't want a bad-tasting Coke."

Some impurities can even shut-down multi-million dollar research projects, or stop space launches.

Mueller talked about going into high-security areas where even the company (maybe government) name is nowhere to be found, but there are plenty of security guards. He said his detection equipment was able to find what and how much of a chemical had contaminated a rocket fuel line. The satellite was launched with just a couple of hours to spare.

In another place, what was being done in nearby farm fields, was causing anomalies in a high-security research project. He wasn't sure whether the guards were government or private company.

For a new project in Puerto Rico, the company's equipment is in a landfill to make CO2 in a carbon net neutral manner. "That business model alone will save the planet," he said.

Other equipment monitors gas lasers used in eye surgery or etching lines in silicone only seven electrons wide to be used in semi-conductors. "That is 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair," he said.

Among equipment manufactured now in the "white room," are laser gas mixing panels. The gas has to be pure so there are no imperfections on the inside of the stainless steel pipettes. The mixing panels are only as good as the equipment in Newton which does interior welds on those pipettes.

He said the technology is also challenging what is known as "Moore's Law," which stated, in 1965, that the number of transistors in a semi-conductor would double - and the cost would half - every two years."

He said that from roughly 1947-1980 there were Univac computers "the size of a room. Look at what we have now." Pulling his cell phone out of a pocket he gestured: "This has the computing power of many rooms of Univacs."

Not all the conversation was rosy, however. He noted that helium, which is essential to many electronic equipment as a cooling agent, "is disappearing. Being lighter than air, helium keeps rising into space.

Other gasses, such as neon, are no longer being extracted. The only two plants which had done the work were in Ukraine, and were razed by the Russian army.

Now, the only supply is what's already extracted, sitting in tank trucks or storage facilities around the world.

Mueller got up from his seat, disappeared into his office and came out holding a sealed glass laboratory vessel.

"This is filled with argon," he said. "It was collected from the air before any atomic tests. We'll never see as pure a sample ever again."

Family Promise of Sussex County has been serving the community for 25 years. During that time, our shelter program has grown immensely – in 2021, we assisted 916 individuals from 565 households! Prior to the pandemic, our shelter program operated as a rotational process in collaboration with local churches, which had families moving each week to a different church. This system became unsafe amidst COVID-19, so our next move was to figure out how to better serve families in crisis.

Thanks to a grant from Impact 100 Garden State, we have been renting hotel/motel stays as more static locations for those in our shelter program. To keep this system in operation and continuously improving, we are on track to meet our goal of raising $100,000 to provide safe, secure, and comfortable housing for our clients. Static shelters in the form of apartments not only significantly reduce trauma experienced by our families, but also are incredibly more cost-effective than hotel/motel placements.

Since we started utilizing static shelters, the positive impact on clients is evident. An FPSC case worker shared the success story of an adult couple who had previously been living in their car for several months. They entered the shelter program, which placed them in a motel for ~60 days. They were actively trying to locate static housing but were struggling to find an apartment that allowed their pets and was accessible for the person with a physical disability. They entered the rapid rehousing program and, with the help of their case worker, were able to secure an apartment rental, making their lives feel stable, secure, and safe. In another case, a mother and her children were asked to leave a relative’s home after fleeing from a domestic violence situation. They, too, were in the shelter program in a motel placement for ~60 days. The case worker was able to work with a landlord to get them safely into an apartment rental through the rapid rehousing program.

The Housing Hope Fundraiser is in place to make every client’s story a success story. The goal is to place families experiencing homelessness into stable housing because everyone deserves a home. Reaching our goal of $100,000 will allow Family Promise of Sussex County to secure rental units for our community members in need. We are grateful to our donors who have gotten us to 94% of our goal. Help us reach 100% to provide Housing Hope to those in crisis by donating at https://tinyurl.com/FPSCHousingHope

For more information, contact Sarah Lutot at [email protected]

Increased activity in the summer could result in heat exhaustion or heat stroke, a cascading condition that can cause permanent disability or death.

Older people, those struggling with health issues and young children are most susceptible to heat exhaustion as well as athletes who wear helmets and heavy uniforms during summer practices. But Atlantic Health System sports cardiologist Matthew Martinez, MD, cautions that everyone needs to be aware of the symptoms to protect themselves and those around them.

Know the Symptoms of Heat Exhaustion

The symptoms of heat exhaustion can include:

Know the Symptoms of Heat Stroke

The symptoms of heat stroke can include:

When not properly addressed, heat exhaustion can develop into heat stroke, a condition where the body is simply unable to cool itself and begins to shut down.

Dr. Michael Weinrauch, Atlantic Health System cardiologist, urges people to acclimate to the season and to practice common sense when spending time in the sun. He also says it is critical to recognize when someone is in crisis.

“The summer heat and humidity sneak up on us and it is important to know how to respond if you suspect a person is suffering from heat exhaustion or heat stroke.”

According to Dr. Martinez, treatment for heat exhaustion involves stopping activity, moving the person to a cooler, shaded location, and providing cold water until the symptoms decline. If a person’s condition worsens, and symptoms of heat stroke emerge, it is important to get the person as cool as possible and to contact medical professionals. They will likely begin IV therapy to quickly hydrate the person and cool the body.

Learn more at atlantichealth.org/summer

Newton Medical Center, based in Newton, NJ, has been providing care to the community since 1932 and serves the people of Sussex and Warren counties in New Jersey, Pike County in Pennsylvania and southern Orange County in New York. Newton was named a 2019 top hospital in New Jersey by Castle Connolly Medical and was recently named high-performing in Heart Failure by U.S. News and World Report. It also earned the 2018 and 2019 Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award as well as seven “A” grades for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group. Newton is home to the Center for Breast Health, the only center of its kind in Sussex County, addressing all breast health needs including state of the art technology, resources, education, support and follow up care. The hospital is a recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award and Three-Year accreditation with commendation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. Newton also earned The Joint Commission advanced certification for Advanced Primary Stroke and is the recipient of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®– Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award with Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus. It is one of a select few health care facilities in New Jersey to be accredited by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) in all three of the following echocardiography procedures: adult transthoracic, adult transesophogeal and adult stress.

The opinions expressed herein are the writer's alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of TAPinto.net or anyone who works for TAPinto.net. TAPinto.net is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the writer.