The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
photos courtesy of Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Park Ridge NJ, Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco joined the New Jersey & New York Volunteer Firemen’s Association at their annual memorial service to honor and remember fallen firefighters, including many of our own from Bergen County.
photos courtesy of Upper Saddle River Fire Department
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Upper Saddle River NJ, across New Jersey, small towns are struggling with a critical shortage of volunteer firefighters. As communities depend heavily on these first responders, fire departments are looking for new ways to attract recruits and keep stations staffed.
Continue reading New Jersey Faces Volunteer Firefighter Shortage – Here’s How Towns Are Responding
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Old Tappan NJ, Volunteer firefighters should receive the same state-funded cancer screening benefits as their professional counterparts, Assemblyman Robert Auth says.
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Despite years of recruitment efforts, Ridgewood has only a skeletal crew of volunteer firefighters. And since so few volunteer ambulance members are available during the day, firefighter EMTs respond to those calls.
Cutting in the area of public safety should be one of the last resorts. There is plenty of spending in this town that should be curtailed first. Buying property and equipment, planning parking garages, etc should be first on the chopping block.
I look at having a paid fire dept the way I look at insurance. You pay for it and hope you never need to use it, but when you do need it you are damn glad you have it. When I remember the Red Cross building fire and the West Side Pres fire, as well as a number of serious house fires, to name just a few, I shudder to think of what may have happened with fewer or volunteer firefighters.And we have a large hospital in this town! The other towns with large hospitals in this area all have paid departments, for good reason!!!
Also, keep in mind that many of the services that our FD provides, such as help pumping out flooded basements and some educational fire prevention programs, would not be provided by a smaller or volunteer dept.
The cost savings would be small and the potential problems would be large. I really feel messing with the fire dept is a big mistake.
