doc13mets

I apologize I read it wrong. You of course are guest, I thought you posted your name as East Newark Dept..... Get a new hobby. Again great job to all departments. Harrison, East Newark, Kearny, Jersey City and Secaucus.

If this is indeed an East Newark FD Superior I would challenge you to post your name... Or are the only thing you are superior at is trying to start trouble. Well you failed. Let's remember what a great job the Harrison FD did alone while communications were down holding the fire at bay. Hats off to you guy! Good back up from East Newark and Kearny when they arrived. All departments contributed to saving the building. But top prize has to go to the HFD for holding it at bay for at least 10 minutes. Great job guys and keep up the good work.

Joe don't believe everything you read on this site. First off the Harrison Firefighters did an excellent job at the Washington St. Fire. They held it in check with little manpower until East Newark and Kearny arrived. Washington St. proved little except Harrison is undermanned. That’s why they need help, it has nothing to do with the "qualifications" of their firefighters, they are all very qualified and do an excellent job. Furthermore while the East Newark FD is very qualified that does not mean they are any more or less qualified then the next town over. All firefighters receive the same amount of basic training. In fact Kearny and East Newark send to the very same fire academy. They received training from the same instructors on the same course. While it would be nice to increase benefits of volunteer firefighters I don't see it happening unless they merged into a West Hudson department with Harrison and/or Kearny. It's just the state of the economy and there is nothing anyone can do at this time. Hopefully Harrison's redevelopment will pay off and they will be able to hire some more firefighters. As for implementing volunteer's in other towns. Well that’s up to the town. Remember what works for one town doesn't necessarily mean it will work for another. Although with the way budgets seem to be going unless something drastically changes in the next few years I wouldn't be surprised to see more combo departments. (Part Paid, Part Volunteer)

The President also gets paid to sleep...

The HFD did a DAMN good job with the number of initial responders... which on this day was actually 6 (I'm guessing cause when they have 7 they usually have a ladder in service right? since they had 2 engines I'm guessing they were at minimum manning which is 6)... 1 was the guy running the scene... 1 guy was pumping... so you really had 4 guys in the building holding the fire... you have to praise those guys cause they did a fantastic job holding it until help could arrive... they saved most of that building and I would go as far to say they saved the building next to it as well... When help did arrive all departments did a great job working together as they always do at fires...

Harrison FD has 5 Captains... 4 are tour commanders (and are doing the job of a B/C with out the pay they deserve) 1 is a Administrative/Training Captain... 3 captains makes no sense as you would need at least 4 (one for each shift) and the 1 admin doing all the behind the scenes work. These guys have given up enough. Get them the support they need so their aren't unnecessarily on the line every time they roll out the door. Obviously you have no idea what you are talking about. The FACTS just put a foot in your mouth. And to Just sayin... I agree it's not worth it cause these people are nuts but I would not want them influencing anyone who doesn't know better.

This section is littered with ignorance and misstating fact while creating the authors own fiction. Kearny never has 4 chiefs on duty at any time so that whole line is outrageous (about DC, 3 Batt. Chiefs). Kearny currently operates with a Deputy Chief on duty 1 captain for each rig in service and 3-4 fireman per rig. This is appropriate staffing. And as for standing from a distance and squirting water... well I guess you didn't see the Kearny Ave/Woodland Ave fire... the chestnut st fire... were both interior attacks... and Brighton Ave fire was also interior until conditions worsened. Williams St. fire in Harrison was another perfect example of an aggressive fire attack. So don't say any of those men were cowards. And Harrison is very short handed. They are a 29 man department. But most days they only have enough firefighters on duty to put 3 men on 1 engine and 2 men on a second engine. This is what they have been forced to do. Harrison needs to be able to hire new firefighters immediately. Their lives and the lives of the residents depend on hiring!

There are not enough people willing to volunteer in Kearny to be firefighters... This is why we need a career department... Kearny is not as slow as you guys make them out to be... East Newark takes Kearny residents as volunteers and it's not like the hoards are banging down there doors to serve the west hudson area...

Four Depts. into one?? From West Hudson... really?? What 4 departments are you talking about... West Hudson is 3 towns... there are 3 departments... There are smarter and more effective ways to trims some budgets then just allow reduction by attrition... West Hudson needs more career firefighters not less...

Very disappointed in only one part of your article. When you mentioned something about only Doyle and McDonough being there... if Kearny on the Web had watched the full speech, (which can be seen here) you would notice Santos among other politicians are present. But KOTW is dead on right about hosting such an event on a Monday morning at 10AM. I didn't even know it was going to happen until about 20 mins before. I would have made arrangements to leave work to attend. I also am upset we don't get to see the rest of the public question and answer period. I heard some other people spoke and I would like to see what they and the governor had to say about those issues as well.

Why can't we let this thread die... the original post was from 2006

Both Kearny and Newarks 2012 budgets are only proposed. Neither has passed yet. So I did use the 2011 numbers to compare.

Kearny's budget is 10.4 million for a department a little more then 1/6th the size... and Newarks last year total was over 64 million you may just be counting salaries. Don't use Newark as a model, the grant you speak of they have f'ed up big time. They got the grant to hire 75 guys (they had to do it in 3 months) they only hired 25, still haven't even started the process for any more. They are loosing millions from the grant for not following the rules. They will not be hiring the full 75.

You do realize Newarks fire budget is over 64 million dollars a year???!!!! Maybe you should do some research before posting.

There wasn't an abandoned building fire on Kearny Ave in the past few years at the very least... if you are talking about the one last week then it was occupied. In fact the fire was started by candels the resident had left lit.

Not true at all... I was listening to Kearny FD as it came in... it was reported as a house fire immediatly... the response time was excellent. Kearny Deputy Chief was on scene very quick and because of the actions of the Kearny FD they were able to save the 2 houses... East Newark, North Arlington and Harrison also helped. Great job by all departments especially the KFD. When it was reported the house was already pretty much a loss.

The discussion was about cops calling out sick... so they were talking about the police chief. Harrison still have a police chief. Your comment is not on target.

Does goodbye 8/1/11 mean hello again 2/1/12???

By Tire Fire i'm guessing you mean the truck that blew up in the scrap yard and if left burning would have set the house on fire that it was threatening. And HFD put that whole fire out themselves, East Newark assisted slightly with overhaul and KFD stood by. I guess we should forget the Pechters fire. Lets also forget the Chemical Company Fire on South 2nd? And last but not least lets forget the Hamilton St. Fire. Which had almost 2 full floors fully involved and a very aggresive interior attack by HFD, ENFD and KFD kept that fire at bay. An East Newark Firefighter even saved a cat in that one. Yeah but no one needs FD's. Scrap em all let towns burn! You're right they all don't count.

I was responding to the first post... not that 3rd post... Some people are truly sick in the head to mock such a tragic event. Not even worth the time.

Sorry I missed your response here. You are very right. I did make a mistake in making the comment about OT savings. As currently the KFD doesn't recieve OT pay. Although I start to wonder if in the long run this really will save the town money. Sure right now no OT gets paid out. I do wonder is there a Cap on the amount of comp time that can be carried over year to year? If there are no caps on comp, vacation or sick time carried over eventually the town will find themselved paying huge lumps of sums to retiring firefighter. I'm not saying that the firefighter shouldn't get paid for this, I believe they should. I just think it might be cheaper to pay them now rather then later when they could possibly be at a higher pay scale. And my taxes haven't dropped either. I'm very much against reducing public saftey any more then it already has been reduced.

You really need some help. Lets set some facts straight. It was not a "Tire Fire". It was actually reported as "Some type of explosion with fire". Immediately HFD responded with its 2 engines and requested an East Newark Ladder to respond. Upon arrival the HFD found a large outside fire that they were concerned could possibly spread to a very nearby house. They requested from Kearny 2 Engines and 1 Ladder and additionally from East Newark 1 Engine. I could see the smoke from my house which is near Belgrove and Midland Ave. The HFD did an excellent job of quickly getting water on the fire and preventing the spread of fire to the nearby house. It was a very humid day and not all the fire units were needed to goto work. It's always good to have unassigned units during days such as that ready for rehab or potential spread of fire. The East Newark Engine and Kearny Units were sent back pretty quickly. The East Newark Ladder hung around a little while longer to assist with brief overhaul and the HFD with putting their equipment away. The HFD did a great job with barely any manpower. Residents that think Harrison should be all volunteer are nuts. What ended up being a great stop could have been disaster if fire had spread to the nearby building.

Often new hires will actually save the town money. Like I am sure it will in this case. Imagine 4 firefighters retire. Now if you don't hire anyone to take their place you will be paying OT to fill their spots. Now imagine OT for some of the guys near the top of the pay scale. You are talking a lot of money. Now imagine hiring some new guys to just jump right in making in the low 30K's a year. Savings? Yes I think so. Think about it. (Now as to who they hired I have no clue and why but this is a senario where it would make sense to work around a hiring freeze)

BTW I don't know why I waste my time, but you don't understand how mergers work. Kearny would not make the move if they have to get rid of any of there own guys. And as a tax payer I would be very much against any merger that would end up reducing my fire protection in Kearny. I'm not going to foot the bill for Harrison. There are better ways they can solve there own problems.

And where are you getting these 250+ volunteers to handle all 3 towns?