LONG BRANCH — The city’s fire department now must reach out to neighboring towns for backup responses previously provided by Fort Monmouth’s fire department, according to a fire official.
Al Sico, outgoing chief of the Long Branch Fire Department, said in an interview that the city previously relied on Fort Monmouth’s first responders for additional disaster support.
“Anytime we have a working fire we call in two RIT [Rapid Intervention Teams] teams, and we pull them from further away now because we used to pull them from Fort Monmouth,” he said.
“With Fort Monmouth [now closed], besides the RIT team, we lost hazmat and confined-space rescues.”
RIT is the team that goes into burning structures if there is someone injured or trapped inside.
Sico said that the city does not have enough manpower to provide those services, and Fort Monmouth’s fire department provided that service to municipalities as far as Asbury Park.
He said the city has mutual aid agreements with many surrounding towns, but some of the responders that were previously provided by the fort will now come from farther away.
Dan Wilson, secretary for Oceanic Engine Company No. 1, said most of the calls are false alarms or quick-and-easy responses.
Sico explained the bulk of the calls the department responds to: “It’s what we call ‘smells and bells,’ mostly alarms and reports of a gas smell.”
Sico said that in 2011 the department responded to 17 second-alarm calls, an increase from the 12 received in 2010.
While those numbers seem high, they are actually lower than when he first became a firefighter, he said.
“Last year we did 12; back in the 1960s and 1970s, when I first joined, we did that in two months’ time,” he said.
According to Sico, the two factors that have led to the decrease in second-alarm calls are smoke alarms and fire prevention information being disseminated to the public more frequently.
He also said that the most common incidents occur from food being left on the stove.
In the past year, the city had to contend with several snowstorms and the late August Hurricane Irene.
Wilson said that during both the hurricane and the 2010 blizzard, each fire station was manned to full capacity and between 30 and 40 calls were received.
On Jan. 1, the department held its annual reorganization meeting, where Harold Bentley III was elected chief, succeeding Sico.
Angelo Ciglia moves from second to first assistant chief and Joseph Sirianni was elected as second assistant.
The chief has responsibility for the entire Long Branch Fire Department, including 20 paid firefighters and about 170 certified volunteers
According to Sico, the main difference between the Long Branch Fire Department, which serves more than 31,000 residents, and fire departments in surrounding municipalities, is the number of calls responded to, with the Long Branch department receiving roughly 2,000 calls last year.
The nine Long Branch fire companies are: Atlantic Engine & Truck Co. No. 2 on Broadway; Branchport Hose Co. No. 3 on Branchport Avenue; Elberon Engine Co. No. 4 on Lincoln Avenue; Independent Fire Engine & Truck Co. No. 2 and Phil Daly Hose Co. No. 2, which share a firehouse on Union Avenue; Neptune Hose Co. No. 1 on Branchport Avenue; Oceanic Engine Co. No. 1 on Norwood Avenue; Oliver Byron Engine Co. No. 5 on Atlantic Avenue andWest End Engine Co. No. 3 on Second Avenue.
The firehouse shared by Phil Daly Hose Co. No. 2 and Independent Fire Engine & Truck Co. No. 2 is considered to be the department headquarters.
Wilson said that the city’s eight firehouses and nine companies are deployed so that the entire city is protected.
“There are nine fire companies in the city of Long Branch, and they are spread out around the town so that there really is no part of Long Branch that isn’t protected by a fire company that is close to it,” he said.
Wilson said that the city’s 20 paid firefighters work a 24-hour shift every four days.
He explained the duties of the paid firefighters and the volunteers.
“Their [paid firefighters’] primary job is to respond immediately and provide the equipment to the fire scene as quickly as possible,” he said. “Meanwhile the volunteer companies are responding.”
In December, Oceanic celebrated its 139th anniversary, making it the city’s oldest fire station.
Contact Kenny Walter at [email protected].