Thanks to a federal grant, every North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue member is now equipped with a self-escape bailout system, apparatus that allows a firefighter to escape unassisted if faced with a life and death situation.
At last week’s North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue meeting, the commissioners approved a $230,000 grant, which the Regional matched with $40,000, to purchase the escape equipment.
The Regional provides fire services to North Bergen, Guttenberg, Union City, West New York, and Weehawken.
Chief Brion McEldowney said that the Regional sought grant funds to purchase the equipment after an incident that occurred in New York City in 2005 often referred to as “Black Sunday,” when two firefighters were killed and another four were injured when they were trapped in a tenement blaze with no way out.
“It is historically one of the most dangerous professions.” – Jeffery Welz
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Last week they practiced in one of the properties that were supposed to be demolished to build the Access to the Regions Core Tunnel, which was cancelled last month. Each firefighter had to bail out of a window 10 times.
“It is historically one of the most dangerous professions,” said co-director Jeffery Welz. “When you are fighting a fire, anything you can do to improve firefighter safety, getting federal grants to cover most of the cost, is a plus for the department and residents that have to pay the bill.”
Here are some photos of their training taken by Safety Officer Capt. Adrian Prunes.
Tricia Tirella may be reached at TriciaT@hudsonreporter.com.