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Twin Blazes Show How Your Fire Safety May Be At Risk

Thinning ranks may compromise fire departments' long-standing practice of mutual aid

JAMES FORD

PIX11.com | @jamesfordtv

8:11 PM EST, February 20, 2012

HOBOKEN, N.J. (WPIX)

A four-alarm fire that took 22 hours to put out lays bare a problem that could be even more dangerous than the fire itself. Fire departments throughout the Tri-State have seen such a loss in resources in recent years that their manpower may be compromised when it's needed most.

Just before 7:00 Sunday evening, a fire broke out in the ground floor of a five-story building at 3rd and Washington Streets in Hoboken. The flames quickly spread to the top floor, where they ended up doing the most damage. Hoboken firefighters responded immediately -- as fast as 90 seconds -- according to the estimate of one firefighting source. However, speed was not the issue. The issue was thoroughness.

"Because of the multiple alarm fire in Jersey City," Hoboken Fire Chief Richard Blohm told PIX11 News, "We had to send resources there. After [the fire broke out in Hoboken], we had to call them back to Hoboken."

"It was a perfect storm" of fire emergencies Sunday evening, according to the Hoboken fire chief. Two hours before his department had a four-alarm blaze on their hands, Jersey City had a five-alarm fire. As is customary, the Hoboken Fire Department provided invaluable help to the city with which it shares a southern border. That mutual aid which Hoboken gave to Jersey City meant that fewer Hoboken firefighters could immediately get on the fire in their own city.

"The only people who could provide us with help was [the town of] North Bergen," Chief Blohm said, "We asked them for fire units, and they could only provide us with one because they were also in Jersey City."

"If we had more manpower at the scene [initially], we could have put more ladders up in time," Bloehm told PIX11 News. Eventually, firefighters from Newark, East Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey, which is eight miles away, were able to come to the Hoboken fire scene to help out.

"The notion that you can rely on a neighboring community to protect your community from fire is absurd," Bill Brennan, a fire safety advocate and former firefighter told PIX11 News in response to the Hoboken and Jersey City fire situation. "It was a decision made by people who have no experience in fire protection."

Brennan points out that fire departments throughout the Tri-State have reduced their rolls steadily over the last three decades. "The same work that was done with twice the people in the 1970's has to be done by half the people [now]," Brennan said.

"The idea [for government should be] 'What are our public safety needs, and how do we afford it?'" said Brennan. "They've got that reversed."

Figures from a national fire safety organization support Brennan's point. According to the National Fire Protection Association, since the financial crisis of 2008 hit the budgets of thousands of cities and towns, the number of career firefighters has remained mostly unchanged. However, the population needing firefighting coverage has grown, resulting in an approximately 11 percent decline in the number of firefighters available to serve residents.

Brennan, the fire safety advocate, says the situation is even worse than the statistics indicate. "Since 2010, staffing has been diminished through attrition and layoffs," he wrote in an email to PIX11 News. "Moreover, established departments lost career members while volunteer fire departments went to paid service due to lack of interest."

"It's just a matter of time before tragedy strikes," Brennan said in an interview.

Chief Blohm, of the Hoboken Fire Department, said he does not feel that public safety is compromised, but instead notes that his department and Jersey City Fire Department were both faced with unusually challenging situations simultaneously. He says he is working with Hoboken's mayor to get more firefighting funding. "We're trying to find that balance between the expense and what's safe," Chief Blohm told PIX11 News, adding, "I could certainly use more manpower, and neighboring cites could as well."


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