Monroe fire districts have their own identities

An in-depth look at Monroe’s three fire districts

By: Stephanie Brown
   MONROE — It’s late morning on a Friday and all is quiet at Applegarth Fire House. The three firefighters on duty keep themselves occupied with small talk and coffee. Chief James Carbin, Lt. Jim Riley and Fire District 2 Commissioner Glen Borsuk are being interviewed by The Cranbury Press.
   "It’s a lot different than what it used to be," Commissioner Borsuk said. "We’ve had an increase in the staffing here, an increase in the number of calls."
   Commissioner Borsuk is cut short as the in-house alarm sounds.
   The dispatcher’s speech is hurried — a structure fire on the corner of Forsgate Drive and Half Acre Road has been reported.
   The men spring into action.
   Two fire engines and two ladder trucks pull out of the station and barrel down the street, sirens wailing.
   Needless to say, the rest of the interview is postponed.
   Chief Carbin later said all three of Monroe’s fire districts responded to the Aug. 25 call, which turned out to be a false alarm. A passerby mistook sawdust coming from concrete construction to be smoke from a fire.
   The response to the fire was not unusual, fire officials say. The three fire districts cover the township’s sprawling 43 square miles and generally work together, especially on structure fires.
   "Every fire company has their own jurisdiction, but we supplement each other, " said District 1 Capt. Scott Kivet. "So even though we are each our own district, we all work together and there’s no animosity or any of that immature, baby stuff."
   While the districts are cooperative, each fire district is an independent entity, acting separately from one another and the municipality.
   The fire districts develop their own budgets and tax their residents accordingly. They are responsible for purchasing their own equipment, hiring staff and maintaining and repairing their stations.
   The fire tax rates are 19 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for Fire District 1 in the northeast section of town, 15 cents per 100 of assessed valuation for Fire District 2 in the southwest section of town, and 25 cents per $100 of assessed valuation for Fire District 3 in the center of town.
   The Township Council has received some complaints from residents about the disparity in tax rates, which officials say are due to each district’s individual budget needs. The council has appointed a task force to study the fire districts and to determine if consolidating the three into one would be a better arrangement. A consolidated fire district could result in one fire tax rate for all taxpayers across the township.
   The Consolidation Study Committee — made up of Township Manager Wayne Hamilton, two members of Township Council, two members from each fire commission and volunteers and officers from the three township fire companies — is in the process of studying several factors to determine if consolidation would be favorable. Officials say they hope to make a recommendation sometime this fall.
   If the committee recommends consolidating the fire districts, the Township Council would then have to review the proposal. The Township Council has the authority to dissolve the districts by ordinance, as long as it has the approval of the state Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board.
   The council likely would hold a public hearing if an ordinance were introduced. Districts 1 and 3 have not said where they stand on consolidation, and are waiting to hear the committee’s report before making an official statement. The Fire District 2 Board of Fire Commissioners passed a resolution July 12 opposing consolidation and issued a press release that said it believes consolidation will not improve service and will increase costs.
   "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it," District 2 Commissioner Lawrence Reisch said during the September board meeting.
   Commissioner Borsuk said the district is now waiting for the consolidation committee’s recommendation.
   Response times for all three districts are similar and depend on a district’s geographical area, officials say.
   According to the National Fire Protection Association, acceptable response time for the initial engine to arrive is four minutes 90 percent of the time, or eight minutes for the initial full-alarm assignment, which is defined by the NFPA as "those personnel, equipment and resources ordinarily dispatched to a structural fire."
   District 1’s response time is about five minutes, said fire officials. District 2 said its response time was three to four minutes for the Ponds or Clearbrook developments, but said it takes a little bit longer for Concordia. District 3 officials said their response time was only a few minutes.
   District 3 Commissioner Chairman Peter Lumia said the addition of the second fire station cut response time by two-thirds.
   "One of things that we started five years ago was to seek out a place that covered the western part of Monroe and we came to this location," he said.
   What used to take 12 to 14 minutes to get from the station on Schoolhouse Road to the opposite side of the district, to Rossmoor for example, now takes two to three minutes, he said.
   "The addition of this station did a great job to enhance our response capabilities in this areas and allowed us to actually get more in line with the standard," said Commissioner Lumia.
   Each district is governed by a board of fire commissioners whose five members are elected by voters for three-year terms. Officers are the chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, treasurer and assistant secretary/treasurer are determined by the commission. Commissioners in District 1 are paid $3,500 each, in District 2 and District 3, they are paid $5,000 each.
   "Ultimately all the responsibilities for any fire services — fire protection, fire inspection — is the responsibility of the board of fire commissioners," Mr. Borsuk said.
   The three districts are represented on a Tri-District Fire Advisory Council. The chief, a commissioner and fire prevention bureau official from each of the three districts meet once a month to discuss equipment, training, purchases, safety procedures and other issues of mutual concern.
   The cooperation between districts has resulted in standardization of some procedures, which can be as small as fire safety inspections or as large as response procedures, Chief Carbin said. He said response procedures include which apparatus responds to the different type of calls in each other’s district, when they respond and how many units respond.
   Also, this cooperation has resulted in a unified police communication system that serves all agencies, the shared purchase of a fire-safety trailer used to teach fire safety to schoolchildren and the public, the shared purchase of an air-compression system that enables firefighters to refill air bottles at station sites, a mobile cascade unit that allows firefighters to refill air at the scene of a fire, and a tape recorder system used to critique calls, gather information and document data, such as response time.
   "I really have a respect for this town because we’re mature about things and the way we work together is really for the best of the community and taxpayers," said Capt. Kivet.
   Career firefighters are employed by the fire district and supervised by the commission. Volunteer fire companies are separate entities that work for the fire district under a contract to provide fire protection services.
   All firefighters must take Firefighter 1, a state-approved course, which is 151 hours of general firefighting training. The course meets the National Fire Protection Association and state firefighter requirements. Firefighters also receive specialty training, like vehicle extrication and confined space rescue.
   Each district has a Fire Prevention Bureau that is responsible for enforcing the New Jersey Uniform Fire Code inspections of businesses in their areas. The districts are also responsible for the annual fire prevention programs in the schools. The districts each pay for a secretary, part-time accountant and board attorney.
   Fire companies submit their budgetary requests to their respective boards of commissioners. Commissioners review, amend, and pass the proposed budgets before they go to voters every February for final approval. Commission candidates also run in the same February election.
   "We can only go so far on our taxes and we try to keep a reasonably tight rein on what we buy," said Commissioner Lumia, of District 3.
District 1
   
District 1 covers about 11 square miles in the northeastern section of town. It has one firehouse located at 24 Harrison Ave. that is staffed by both career and volunteer firefighters. The chain of command in District 1 consists of one chief, one deputy chief, one captain and one lieutenant, all volunteers.
   Three paid firemen work five days a week from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Career firefighters do not work nights, weekends or holidays, said Chief Joseph Sensale. They receive an annual salary of between $48,000 and $58,000 and have between seven and 10 years of experience, commission Chairman Charles DiPierro said. District 1 budgeted $91,000 in the 2006 for career firefighters payroll, pension, and health benefits.
   The district’s career firefighters supplement the approximately 55 volunteers firefighters.
   "The population is increasing and a lot of people want to serve the community," said Mr. DiPierro. "Being a volunteer firefighter is a fine way to do a good deed."
   Chief Sensale said there had been a limit on the number of volunteers the company accepted in the past because more people wanted to join than could be accommodated, but that cap was removed about five years ago.
   "We didn’t have a lot of money back then to really outfit everyone," said Chief Sensale. "Now we have more money with increased population and increased ratables, we can afford to put more (firefighters) on."
   To attract and retain volunteer firefighters, District 1 participates in a state-approved deferred compensation program called Length of Service Award Program. LOSAP is a state pension program that pays volunteers based on their participation. Members start accruing pensions during the first year, but do not become vested until they have volunteered for five.
   To qualify for the program’s minimum contribution of $1250, a volunteer has to attend 50 percent of the training drills and 50 percent of the meetings, and answer 30 percent of fire calls. The district provides $10 for each percent above 30.
   District 1 received about 800 calls in 2005. Chief Sensale said more than half were fire alarms due to things like unattended cooking. The company had 10 to 15 structure fires in 2005, he estimated.
   District 1 has a mutual aid agreement with Helmetta. If a structure fire occurs anywhere in Helmetta, Monroe Fire District 1 Volunteer Co. automatically responds with a ladder truck, because Helmetta does not have one, Chief Sensale said. Helmetta automatically responds to any fire alarm in the northwest area of Monroe Fire District 1 (near Old Forge Road), which is where the district had wanted to put a new fire station. The mutual aid agreement was established about four years ago, Chief Sensale said.
   District 1 pays a fire official $10,000 and a fire inspector $58,000. District 1 pays its secretary $7,350 annually. The budget allots for $41,000 in legal and accounting fees.
   The firefighters of District 1 are proud of their volunteer status.
   "There’s a really camaraderie here and I really think the people in this area know that and respect that," Capt. Kivet said.
   Not only is it their job as volunteers to fight fires, but also he said it was their duty as a member of the community to look out for their neighbors.
   "When their house catches on fire, it’s not just our job to put it out, but it’s also our responsibility as family," Capt. Kivet said.
   
   
District 2
   
District 2 covers about 14 square miles in the southwest area of town. District 2 has one station located at 130 Applegarth Road, near Old Mount Road, that is an around-the-clock paid operation supplemented by volunteer firefighters from the Applegarth Fire Company.
   The chain of command in District 2 consists of one paid chief, four paid lieutenants, one volunteer deputy chief, one volunteer assistant chief, a volunteer captain and a volunteer lieutenant. The district has 17 paid firefighters, including officers, and 14 volunteers, including officers.
   A platoon of one paid lieutenant and three paid firefighters work rotating shifts of 24 hours on duty and 72 hours off. Volunteers cover whenever they can.
   "I would love to see 30 active volunteers," Chief Carbin said. "That would guarantee us a second piece of apparatus on the road and additional manpower at the station."
   The chief is paid an annual salary of $63,000, the lieutenant $58,000 to $62,000 over a four-year step and career firefighters are paid annual salaries of between $33,600 and $58,000 over a seven-year step. Chief Carbin is also the fire official and is paid $4,000 per annum in addition to his chief’s salary.
   District 2 pays its secretary $7,000 annually. Their budget allots $70,000 in legal and accounting fees.
   District 2 participates in the LOSAP program and offers another incentive called the Volunteer Incentive Program that compensates volunteers based on the number of calls to which they respond.
   Recently the volunteer fire company has changed its recruitment efforts. Commissioner Borsuk said it is now looking to bring in recruits who are established in the township rather than those who have recently graduated high school and may be leaving the town soon.
   "Our new members are people who are starting families and are more likely to stay in the area," he said. "They’re not our typical 16- to 20-year-olds, but it’s worked out very well for us. We know that they’re going to stick around pretty much."
   District 2 received 866 calls in 2005. A large percent were fire alarms and not actual fires, Chief Carbin said. There were 13 structure fires in 2005.
   Commissioner Borsuk said the number of calls have been increasing over the years. He said that the district received 753 calls in 2004, 640 calls in 2003 and 530 calls in 2002.
   "Pretty much as the development increases, the calls go up proportionately," Commissioner Borsuk said.
   In addition to the Tri-District Association, District 2 participates in a mutual aid agreement called the Suburban Fire Chiefs Association. It consists of 12 fire departments whose chiefs meet bi-mothly to discuss mutual aid plans, said Chief Carbin.
   Applegarth works with Millstone, East Windsor, Hightstown, Cranbury and Plainsboro on a first-due basis, meaning it responds first to those communities in the association and vice versa.
   "If we are participating in a large-scale fire, we would use mutual aid departments, which we do quite often," said Chief Carbin.
   Each department pays yearly dues of $150, which Chief Carbin said is used to buy foam for putting out fires and for training.
   The chief said the 12 departments do two drills a year with each other, , one for a hose task force and another for a tanker task force. He said those particular task forces are used for exceptionally large-scale fires, like the Shell Refinery fire in Sewaren in 1986.
   "Everybody gets familiar with the large operation," said Chief Carbin. "Like in everything, the more you train the more it becomes second nature and everything becomes a lot smoother."
   District 2 opposes consolidation because it says that would increase costs without improving fire protection and it could derail a plan to build a new firehouse on Applegarth and Cranbury-Half Acre roads.
   "With consolidation, additional positions may be needed, such as battalion chiefs and other command and management personnel, all leading to increased costs to the taxpayers of Monroe," the commissioners said in a July press release.
   "We’ve issued a press release that pretty much speaks for itself, and our stance hasn’t changed at all," said Commissioner Borsuk. "We felt initially that we had to get our concerns out to the public, but we’re not going to go any further down that road. At this point were waiting for the commission to make its recommendation."
District 3
   
District 3 covers about 17 square miles in the center of town and has two fire stations, one located at 359 Schoolhouse Road and a new station located at 16 Centre Drive.
   District 3 is also an around-the-clock paid operation. It has one chief/administrator, one captain, eight lieutenants and 24 paid firefighters.
   The volunteer company disbanded in 1999 because the district was having trouble recruiting enough volunteers, Chief James Beebe said. At that time, there were only seven volunteers in the company, he said.
   The district then went to a full-time, paid staff supplemented by a part-time staff, which was phased out in April 2005.
   Chief Beebe said District 3 does not have viable candidates for volunteerism because of the number of retirement communities and white-collar workers who live in the area.
   "In order to have adequate response time its necessary for volunteers to live within close proximity to the firehouse," said Chief Beebe. "We’re inundated with adult communities coupled with a professional lifestyle that makes it difficult to recruit volunteers. We tried to keep the (volunteer) organization together to supplement the careers, but just couldn’t keep a leg up."
   When potential volunteers come to the station, Chief Beebe said they are referred to District 1 or District 2.
   "Right now, all of our firefighters are direct employees of the board of commissioners."
   The chief is paid an annual salary of $78,000, the captain is paid an annual salary of $75,000, the lieutenants are paid between $48,000 and $50,000 a year, and firefighters are paid between $33,601 and $46,204.
   Capt. Ray LeBrun serves as the District 3 fire official, which is included in his salary, and another part-time fire official is paid about $25,000 a year, said Chief Beebe.
   District 3 pays its secretary $6,875 annually. Commissioner Lumia said he couldn’t say specifically how much money was allotted in the 2006 budget for legal and accounting fees, but said that the board attorney receives $200 per meeting, and $125 per hour for other services. He also said the auditor receives $125 per hour, including meetings.
   A platoon of one lieutenant and three firefighters work 10-hour dayshifts on consecutive days followed by 14-hour nightshifts on the following two days. The platoon then has off for four days.
   Chief Beebe said the shifts would change in January to be the same as those in District 2, as part of recent contract negotiations. He said he believed it would have both administrative and operational benefits, allowing the district to save money on sick time. He said firefighters will be working fewer consecutive days at the station, and that the career firefighters in District 3 will work the same shifts as those in District 2, which would make working together easier.
   "Remember, we work as a single department and this would make for a more cohesive unit," said Chief Beebe.
   The number of calls received in District 3 has increased steadily over the past eight years, according to a Monroe Township Fire District 3 Annual Alarm report. In 1997, the district received 355 calls, 400 in 1999, 507 in 2002, and then increased by about 100 calls per year until 2005, when it received 769 calls.
   "We’re on the same page again this year," said Chief Beebe.
   Like District 1, District 3 also has a mutual aid agreement with Helmetta. Commissioner Lumia said Helmetta assists the township with calls in the northwestern part of District 3, but the district is currently testing an emergency route via Possum Hollow Road to get directly to the other side of the district, instead of going through Jamesburg. The chief said there is no contractual agreement requiring District 3 to automatically go to Helmetta as a first response, but they would go if called.