It was always an unwritten rule that a firefighter would do anything to help his fellow brethren in a time of dire need.
“We’ve always helped each other,” said North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue Chief Brion McEldowney earlier this month. “No fire department is geared to handle all emergencies. Sometimes, you have to rely on your neighbors to help you.”
However, there are incidents where a firefighter might get injured fighting a blaze outside of his jurisdiction. Or times when a piece of fire equipment gets damaged helping to fight a fire in another municipality.
“We needed to have something in place, something in writing, that would cover us in those times,” McEldowney said.
On Oct. 14, the fire chiefs from all of Hudson County’s municipalities got together with Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise to sign the first Mutual Aid Agreement, which covers all of the local fire departments in case of emergencies when combined help is necessary.
Now, there is a formal plan as to which departments help out the others in terms of coverage and backups in case of emergencies.
“This is something we’ve always done to help each other,” said Secaucus Deputy Chief Raymond Cieciuch, who represents Secaucus at the monthly meeting of fire chiefs from throughout the county. “But this is the first time we’ve written things down and have an agreement with all the town’s in Hudson County.”
Cieciuch said each of the towns passed a resolution that spelled out the agreement, and gave each town the ability to call on the resources of other towns.
“We’ve helped other towns when they called us,” he said. “When there was the pier fire in Kearny a few weeks ago, we sent our fire boat. When we had the fire on Meadowlands Parkway, Jersey City sent us help. But now we know we can call on any town and – as long as it doesn’t deprive that town – we can get help.”
It was also important to put the Mutual Aid Agreement into law, because the Federal Department of Homeland Security has requested municipalities in close general proximity to offer aid to each other in times of crisis.
“These are the kinds of things that were taken care of informally, just in the spirit of cooperation,” DeGise said. “But nothing was ever formalized. Our office of emergency management, headed by Frank Pizzuta, tried to figure out if we could reach an agreement like this, on behalf of the safety of everyone in Hudson County. Now, we have something formal.”
Added DeGise, “Especially after 9/11, we’ve realized that there are many times where there is a need to combine services. I think all the mayors agreed that we should get together and do what’s necessary.”
Which means that all political differences were put aside – for the time being – for the good of the general public.
“I was laughing with the fire chiefs, because it’s not all the time that you get everyone to agree on something,” DeGise said.
“Everybody is on the same page,” Cieciuch said. “Now we’re all covered by town insurance, and now all the I’s are dotted and all the T’s are crossed.”
Chiefs meet monthly
McEldowney said that the county’s fire chiefs meet monthly, so there were never any political differences that got in the way of reaching the agreement.
“I can’t speak for the individual towns, but I can speak for the fire chiefs, in that we all get along pretty well,” McEldowney said. “It’s not surprising for the fire chiefs to get together and agree on something. We’ve been discussing mutual aid for quite some time now, in terms of coverage and training issues. Now, we have that agreement officially in place.”
DeGise said that are some other issues that needed to be addressed in the agreement, because municipalities like Secaucus still operate a volunteer fire department, instead of a paid department.
“It can get tough when you have volunteers interacting with professionals,” DeGise said. “There could be certain problems. But the Secaucus volunteer firefighters do a great job and understand their roles.”
DeGise said that he will encourage the county’s municipalities to do more combined emergency services in the future. There will also be a new Hudson County Office of Emergency Management facility being built in Secaucus.
“We’d like to do more with uniform services and public safety personnel,” DeGise said. “So we can all respond to catastrophic events better. The OEM office will also continue to train civilians that would be able to help.”
Right now, the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue squad serves North Bergen, Union City, West New York, Guttenberg and Weehawken. The other towns are served by their own departments. Sidebar:
Giving a little blood?
The Secaucus Volunteer Fire Department in conjunction with the Secaucus Policeman’s Benevolent Association Local 84 will be holding their annual blood drive on Nov. 20 from 2 to 7 p.m. The blood drive will be held at Engine Company No. 1 at 150 Plaza Center Road and is open to anyone over 17 years old. Blood will be drawn by representatives from the Community Blood Service of Paramus. Anyone wishing to pre-registered for the drive can call 201-251-3703. Donors can also walk in during the designated hours.