>In fact anonymous is incorrect in his/her statment about our fire department responding on a first call basis to other towns. All of the surrounding towns have their own fire departments and only request “mutual aid” from Ridgewood FD when they have a fire that requires additional resources above and beyond what they have available. Just as the Ridgewood FD makes requests to those towns volunteer fire departments when they have a problem that requires additional resources. These agreements are in effect to protect the property and lives of the residents of all towns involved. The definition of “mutual aid” is that both parties have the same relationship with one another for assistance. In fact the Ridgewood Fire Department responds to very few of these calls per year (Probably around 1% of total call volume). I saw on the blog just today that there was a fire on Washington Place. What is not seen in the photos is that there are at least three other fire departments assisting Ridgewood’s fire department. I drove by and saw Ramsey’s fire department there as well as on my way home saw the Hohokus and Allendale fire departments at our fire headquarters. I wonder whether they should charge Ridgewood for their services for this small fire? It is my hope that the residents who read this blog and comments realize that we residents are lucky that we have some of the best public safety services in the area. There are some towns around us that have a hard time just getting an ambulance to a sick person and a fire truck to a fire most of the time. Thanks for your time and letting me clarify this error.
>"Mutual Aid " by local Fire Departments
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>The plain truth is that Ridgewood taxpayers fund the only full time FD in Northwest Bergen. There are professional, highly trained, salaried firefighters on duty 24/7 and ready to roll in seconds from 2 fully staffed firehouses within the Village. However, this service doesn’t come without cost. The FD budget is reported to be approximately $3 million per year. Regardless of the price tag, this service is well worth it and Ridgewood FD is clearly the best in the business.
Conversely, every community neighboring Ridgewood depends upon volunteers for fire protection. Fire chiefs in those communities, whose non-salaried members aren’t standing by at their firehouses 24/7, know Ridgewood FD can be counted on for an immediate Mutual Aid response. Thus, Ridgewood FD typically responds DIRECTLY TO THE SCENE of more working fires in communities neighboring ours than their fire departments respond to within the Village.
What would happen if one of our fire trucks and its entire crew got tied up at a working fire in either Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus, or Midland Park and 15 minutes later a fire were to break out at Hawes School with reports of students and staff trapped? Depending upon which truck is out of town, the closest vehicle capable of pumping water might be responding to Hawes from West Glen Avenue near North Monroe Street!
We’re paying $3 million for a service that might not be available when really needed because one of our first line crews is out fighting a fire in a town whose taxpayers haven’t given us a dime? Why not call out the Ridgewood Volunteer FD to respond Mutual Aid instead of sending a salaried crew?
>Would you like it if there was an emergency at your house and the fire chief in the next town over said that there might be a possibility that there may be an emergency in my town so we can’t help Ridgewood? Since when is public safety about dollars and cents. I would rather sleep well at night knowing that our town services can lend a helping hand where it is needed so when there is a major problem here (i.e. West Side church fire, Post Office shooting) help will be forthcoming from our neighbors.
>they responded very fast to the fire on washington place on friday ….
>I didn’t suggest we shouldn’t send help to other towns. I suggested we send our volunteers, just as they send us their volunteers.
>I suggest you re-evaluate the need for a paid Fire Department in Ridgewood and why do they have to respond to ambulance calls if we have such a great ambulance corps? Do we really need another racing emergency vehicle on the road when you already have an ambulance, hospital paramedics and usually two police cars going to the same address. Seems over-kill to me. Maybe the Fire Department should absorb the ambulance corps duties or let the ambulance corps do there own thing. Seems like a big waste of resources to send so much public safety equipment for some one with a twisted ankle. Why does the Fire Department always go to every call with their lights and sirens on? Do they need to go that fast to a “water in someones’ basement” or other non-emergency calls?
Seems like a lot of waste by the public safety that we are paying for.
>who says they are fully staffed, I here they usually work with minimum staffing as does the police department. How safe can that be for us as taxpayers as well as for the police officers and fire fighters.
>$3 million for service when you need it.- You make me sick by some of the things you are saying. Who in this world do you think you are to be putting a price tag on someone’s life? Every town helps each other weather they are volunteering their time or not. They all go to the same school and all have the same amount of training. I suggest you focus on more importian issues then worrying about yourself and you getting what you want.
>I can assure you that if Ridgewood were to go to a completely volunteer department and one of those homes was destroyed because Central Dispatch put out tones for a fire and the volunteers who where available took an estimated 5 minutes to arrive at Headquarters and then lets say another 3 minutes to arrive at the scene
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That’s what you wrote, first of all way before Ridgewood was a paid dept. it was staffed by a 100% volunteer dept., It’s because of city people and others that have moved in and made Ridgewood bigger that they wanted to provide a paid dept. since Ridgewood was expanding pretty big and wasn‘t finding volunteers to staff calls. Also way before RFD was paid and there were volleys they were still responding for out of town fires. Also like some other people have said, it doesn’t take two staffed fire engines to quickly and defiantly to knock down a fire, it take 1 engine to knock down and suppress a fire. There are once in a while where there is too much fire and extensions that they must require more resources but like we have said it only take 1 engine to suppress a fire. Also a response time for a town your size and other towns in Bergen County is about 2-3 minutes to fire headquarters and 2-3 minutes to the scene, which in this day and age is one of the best response time in the fire service, you go up to Orange, Ulster, Duchess Counties in New York there response time is 5 minutes to the firehouse and 4-5 minute response time to the scene because a lot of the fire districts up there are really spread out with a lot of houses and a lot of towns don’t have a 2 or 3 stations in there area. But the response time for volunteers in Bergen and the rest of the Northern New Jersey is like I said 2-3 to firehouse 2-3 to scene.
It’s people like you who come from the cities or a city like towns that expects a good fire service every fire service either paid or volunteer are the best services ever in the US, they train together, they have the same training and cert.’s all the different is a paid person pays to put out fires and a volunteer does it on his own time for free of service. I don’t know why in the hell you would pay $3 million dollars for a paid dept. especially when it is still understaffed like I hear it is. Not every paid dept. is staffed like you think they are, a lot of paid dept.’s respond with a driver and 2 in there apparatus which means that is understaffed and you need at least a driver and 3-4 firefighters as for a staffed and adequate crew where 2 can set up an attack line and the third guy and or 4th guy can start ventilating the house by roof or windows. Like I have said the Paid dept. look to have fully staffed engines but a lot respond with the not required amount of people. So please stop saying RFD is a very staffed paid dept., they may have the best training but they certainly don’t have the right staff. I ain’t bashing a dept. by that but I am saying some people as the one person who said they have one of the finest paid dept.’s it’s not true, for a $3 million budget for paid dept. that definitely means low staffing dept., such as the city of Newburgh in NY which has paid dept. and there budget is twice as much as RFD’s and NFD is understaffed and even they have a big city which still has to call in for volunteer dept.’s to replenish at there quarters and to the scene. Like I said don’t put things down thinking you know everything about the fire service or how your dept. operates and how other towns need to pay you for your mutual aid help, that’s not what a definition of mutual aid stands for. It means to help others in a time of need and no dept. responds mutual aid with an first due engine, there is a mutual aid engine or apparatus assigned whether each town is designated for different things such an example, usually dept.’s call for a ladder, then a FAST Team and rescue and so on. RFD is usually designated with one engine. But like I said every community is here to help another community out.
A. Definition of Mutual Aid
Mutual aid is organized, supervised, coordinated, cooperative, reciprocal assistance
in which personnel, equipment and physical facilities of all participating fire
departments, regardless of type or size, are utilized for fire or other emergency in
which the services of firefighters would be used throughout the State, County, Town, Village and adjacent areas.
As used in this plan, the terms “fire companies” and Afire districts@ shall include all
companies, fire ambulances, rescue squads, fire police, or other units of fire
companies, fire departments, or fire districts, whether incorporated or not, and shall
mean and include any firefighting unit as may be defined or described in Section
209 of the General Municipal Law.
Non-Fire Related Mutual Aid Definition
Soldiers and citizens, of whatever nation you may be, re-establish public confidence, the source of the welfare of a state, live like brothers, render mutual aid and protection one to another, unite to defeat the intentions of the evil-minded, obey the military and civil authorities, and your tears will soon cease to flow!