Town rallying to help fire chief rebuild Sandy-damaged house after heart attack

Mantolking Fire Chief Larry Gilman, who suffered a heart attack while fighting a fire, won't be able to make repairs on his Sandy-damaged home.

MANTOLOKING -- Mantoloking's fire chief is out of the woods after suffering a heart attack while battling a stubborn blaze Saturday night, but his anticipated extensive recovery is going to prevent him from getting back to his Hurricane Sandy-damaged home, a family friend said.

Because of that dilemma, family friend Kelly Burdge said she set up a gofundme page to raise $20,000 toward the repairs of Chief Larry Gilman's home.

"Larry is one of the most reliable people I have ever met and always puts everyone else's needs before his own," Burdge says in the narrative. "He is around all hours of day and night responding to fire calls, doing the town's 'dirty' work as an employee for the Mantoloking public works, chasing his 2-year-old grandson around on the weekends and being the best father and husband that he can (possibly) be."

Fire chief suffers heart attack during large Mantoloking blaze

Burdge, who works in the borough's office of emergency management, said Gilman and his family recently moved to a rental in Toms River so that his Sandy-damaged home in Brick could be elevated. He can't move back until he gets a certificate of occupancy and that depended on how quickly the post-elevation work got done, she said. Gilman had been doing much of that repair work himself in order to reduce costs, she said.

"We want him to be back in his home. We want him to be comfortable. We want him to be less stressed," Burdge said."To take some of the stress off him, we've got to get the contractors in there to get some of that work done."

The work is expected to include ripping out the flooring, purchasing supplies, painting and landscaping, among other projects, she said.

MaryAnn Spoto may be reached at mspoto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @MaryAnnSpoto. Find NJ.com on Facebook.