Fire Department News | Delran Fire Department

August 2022

Working together with our Utility Company!

As you may already know by now, the Delran Fire Department, along with other departments and companies in Burlington County respond to a multitude of different types of calls. There are times however where we may not be able to fully handle the incident alone and will need the help of more experienced personnel that falls within the scope of the incident. PSE&G (Public Service Electric & Gas) is one of our utility companies that we work closely with on different incidents. These calls of service include but are not limited to downed wires, live wires, accidents involving utility poles, carbon monoxide alarm systems, appliance fires, natural gas leaks and also large structure fires. These incidents at times may require job specific utility workers.

Downed wires, live wires and accidents or incidents involving live wires require electric to be shut off as soon as possible. Sadly, this can’t be done with a “flick of a switch”, so we contact PSE&G to come out to the scene and deem what needs to be shut down and where it needs to be secured. There are times that this can be done over the phone by the PSE&G employee calling and having a grid or a section of grid shut down remotely so that work can be done. This is very important especially on motor vehicle accidents that involve live wires. While we can’t go up to the vehicle until its confirmed that the electric is secured, we are still able to assist the occupant(s) and instruct them not to move or try to exit their vehicle. Your vehicle is grounded by the rubber wheels touching the ground. If you try to exit the car, injuries (sometimes fatal) may result in completing a circuit with your foot on the ground and touching the vehicle. Always treat downed wires as if they are live! Never go near these types of issues and call 9-1-1 right away!

Carbon monoxide (CO) if you didn’t know is a colorless and odorless gas that can result from a stoves, HVAC system, batteries on charge, sump pump battery backups, vehicles running in or near an open doorway or garage, etc. While we have meters that can pick up this gas and let us know if the atmosphere in your house or building is safe, we may not be able to always narrow down the source if this gas is present. Again, PSE&G are asked to respond out and we assist them with ventilation of the structure and helping to narrow down a cause so that the homeowner or business owner will know the next steps, if any are needed. Its reminded that you should have a CO monitor on all levels of your house and be sure to check, test and replace batteries, if applicable when you change your clock batteries. Normal life span of these detectors are 7-10 years and some are still serviceable to have the battery replaced, however these units may come sealed with a 10-year battery in them. Once these fail then they will need to be replaced as a whole unit. If your detectors go off, move to fresh air right away and call 9-1-1!

It may sound funny to have a utility company come out to a structure fire or a building fire, but they could have just as much of an impact on the scene as we are having. During structure fires, crews are dealing with deteriorating conditions and opening up walls and ceilings to find hidden fire. Within these walls and ceilings are sometimes live electric. The electric needs to be secured by one of two ways; pulling the meter that is located on some exteriors of the house or building or by cutting the power physically at the pole where it comes in. This will help protect the fire fighters and let them work safely and worry free of electrocution. The other hazard would be a natural gas fed fire. These fires can be very dangerous because if the gas is not actively burning that may mean its building somewhere to possibly cause an explosion. The gas company, which is also PSE&G, can come out to help and secure the gas at the street and eliminate the flow and hazard in the structure.

While we only talked mainly about PSE&G here, we do work with Verizon, Comcast, water and sewer departments to name a few of the more common utilities. PSE&G is one of the utilities that we work hand in hand with. Normally the actions that we take on scenes, determine what their next action is and vice versa, items that PSE&G handle, usually serve positive outcomes and actions of the fire department. There is always one goal on every incident that we respond to with or without the need of our Utility Partners and that is: “Everybody Goes Home.” Stay safe and if you ever have any questions about processes you should take for alarms in your house, please contact the fire department and we will help you to the best of our ability.

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

April 2022

What Happens When You Call 9-1-1?

Emergencies can happen any time, any day and any place. Sadly, we can’t predict an emergency, and emergency personnel aren’t always around to call them in on a radio. So that leaves it to the public to be the first to help someone that may be having the worst day of their lives! How do you help? By calling 9-1-1 for any emergency!

Calling 9-1-1 is important to emergency services in many different ways! Were going to break down what happens when you call those three important numbers and what to expect so that if you ever need to call, you’ll already know what to do and what to expect.

When you initially call 9-1-1, you will be answered by a call taker at Burlington County Communications Center in Westampton, NJ. (This is if you are calling in Burlington County. If you are out of county, you may be transferred to a different communication center automatically). The call takers job is going to be; to obtain the location your at or where the emergency is, take down or confirm your phone number you are calling from, take your name and obviously the nature of the incident you are calling about. This should all be asked of you in that order.

Once that information is taken and collected, you will be transferred to a dispatcher of either Police, Fire, EMS or State Police depending on what the incident is that you described and what is needed. During the transfer of this call, you may be in a “Three Way Call” with the call taker and the dispatcher that you were transferred to. This should only happen for a small moment so that they can relay information that you gave to them. The dispatcher will then ask about what is going on. For example, if you reported a fire their going to ask about safety of others, yourself, and also to try to get a more specific location if you didn’t already give one. If you reported someone having a medical emergency, they may ask if you know the person and ask you about their past history and medical information. All of which will help out the first responders greatly because you’re painting a picture of the scene for them and what’s expected.

The dispatcher will remain on the line with you until emergency personnel arrive on scene, sometimes you may be talking to the same person that we are talking to on the radio at the same time! That’s giving us real time information that is critical to large scale incidents, in the event we need to call in more resources.

Calling 9-1-1 again is the beginning step to helping to bring control and assistance to a chaotic scene or someone in dire need of medical help or police assistance. You can be that beginning step!

Submitted by:
Devin Keesler
Firefighter
&
Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

March 2022

Change Your Clocks, Change Your Batteries

Submitted By: Captain / Deputy Fire Official Cunningham

On March 13^th, States throughout the US turned their clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time. Many people will use this opportunity to change their home’s Smoke & Carbon Monoxide alarm batteries as well.

Ensuring that you have working smoke alarms is a critical element of home fire safety. However, today’s smoke alarms are not all designed the same.

Listed is information to help make sure all your smoke alarms have working batteries, accounting for the multiple types of smoke alarms on the market and their varying battery requirements:

Smoke alarms with non-replaceable 10-year batteries are designed to remain effective for up to 10 years. If the alarm chirps, warning that the battery is low, replace the entire smoke alarm right away.

Smoke alarms with any other type of battery need a new battery at least once a year. If that alarm chirps, warning the battery is low, replace the battery right away.

When replacing a battery, follow manufacturer’s list of batteries on the back of the alarm or manufacturer’s instructions. Manufacturer’s instructions are specific to the batteries (brand and model) that must be used. The smoke alarm may not work properly if a different kind of battery is used.

Along with replacing the batteries in your smoke alarms, it is equally important to check the age of the unit. Smoke alarms have a life span of ten years. After this time the unit needs to be replaced to ensure that the device responds to alert you of a fire.

Carbon monoxide alarms are equally important and provide additional protection to your family. Carbon monoxide is a color-less, odor-less, and taste-less gas that is a by-product of common household appliances such as stoves, heaters, and fireplaces. This harmful gas is extremely toxic to humans. Installing a carbon monoxide alarm in the sleeping area of your home will provide early warning of a problem that can become deadly.

Take these important steps; the steps to save a life.

If you need assistance with how to check your detectors, replacing batteries or replacing detectors, please contact the Office of Fire Prevention at (856) 461-5474.

January 2022

There’s So Much To The Training That We Do!

Training is an amazing opportunity for our members; not only for themselves, but for our residents as well. Technology is constantly evolving, so we need to evolve with it. Learning new things and training to keep ourselves sharp is always a challenge that we will have to overcome in today’s world. As technology changes to better the environment, sometimes it makes things significantly harder for us. As the number of hybrid cars raise, it provides a great difficulty to the fire services due to the lithium-ion batteries, nickel-metal hydrate batteries, lead-acid batteries, and solid-state batteries they use. Change happens all around us and we train so we can be prepared.

With fire safety comes fire education. Applying what we learn, helps to serve and protect our residents and surrounding towns. We train every chance we get; whether it be something new or something we have trained on before to better our skills. You can never train too much for a job that can kill you. The Burlington County Emergency Services Training Center (BCESTC) holds courses year-round to train every entity of the emergency services. It’s where we start to become certified firefighters, and it’s where members continue to learn and grow 5, 10, and even 20 years into their careers. It’s an environment with instructors where we learn in classrooms or even hands on at their fire grounds to train on the old and the new skills we have acquired.

Training isn’t only within the department, but outside the department as well. We train with our brothers and sisters in the Police and EMS agencies, and also outside agencies like surrounding towns as well. We have even brought in instructors from all around the country to train on things we may come across that they specialize in. This training is anything from water rescue training, ice rescue training or motor vehicle accident extrication training. From the day we start in the fire service, we are always training to expect the unexpected. Things can go wrong in a matter of seconds, and training helps us come up with different ways to overcome various obstacles to achieve our goals.

Our overall goal as well as part of our Mission Statement in the fire service is to preserve and protect life and property. We will continue to train and push ourselves for you, our residents. Everything above and much more is why there’s so much more to training than just putting a tool in our hands and accomplishing a task; we get the opportunity to train ourselves and our minds to adapt and over come in a vast variety of incidents and tasks both on and off the scene. Stay safe everyone!

Submitted by:

FF Morgan Schaefer
Delran Fire Department; Station 232

December 2021

Rehabilitation for Fire Fighters

Rehabilitation or as we in the fire service commonly hear it as “Rehab,” is not only another item of business that fire fighters and first responders need to do at a large-scale scene but it’s an important one! Rehab on the fire scene serves many purposes such as providing a place for fire fighters to take a breath and sit down and relax after performing high energy consumption activities both inside of fires and those responders who may be involved in strenuous rescues in immense heat or frigid cold for long periods of time such as vehicle rescues, special technical rescues, and also ice/water rescues. These rehab areas also gives the EMT’s (Emergency Medical Technicians) a place to stage equipment and also tend to the fire fighters and rescuers and beginning monitoring their vital signs such as heart rate, pulse and other key areas of interest. All of this information that they gather off of us will tell us if we need to rest more, drink more fluids, be released from the scene to go back to activities, or at the worst be transported to the hospital for further evaluation because they may see something that we cannot feel yet due to tiredness or adrenaline.

Rehabilitation areas may not be set up directly at the scene of the incident due to the size of some areas that are needed for equipment and apparatus which could include but are not limited to; Ambulances for transportation, extra stretchers or chairs, room for rehab trailers and tents (as you will see pictured below), and also for ALS (Advanced Life Support) in the form of paramedics. Rehab areas may be set up to over three houses down from a fire scene or could be set up in a secluded area away from the noise and commotion of the incident going on.

Rehab areas aren’t always for when something bad happens, it can be used on drills and training assignments as well! When we are training, we may be training in intense scenarios such as high energy consumption drills to ice/water rescue training in freezing temperature waters and air temps. We need to be sure that we are training ourselves to do what we would on an actual scene while we train so that we are ready, know what’s expected, and make it become a habit. Again, rehab isn’t just a place to sit down and hang out with your colleagues, it’s there to make sure that we come home the same way that we left from our homes.

In Delran Fire Department we are sure to keep Rehab at a high priority. In the Chester Avenue station, there is a rehabilitation trailer that we can bring to any scene and training assignment when it is called for service. The trailer itself has heat for colder weather and A/C for warmer temperature assignments, medical equipment to monitor our bodies when we are in rehab, chairs, coolers that can be stocked with ice and waters, portable air conditioner and heater units, mist fans, a generator to power equipment that is on board the trailer, and also a rehab tent. This tent is big enough to be able to keep the responders and the medical members out of the elements while tending to multiple members. A/C and heat units can be brought into the tent to keep a comfortable environment and chairs can be used to keep people relaxed and off their feet. We will have this tent set up often for drills and training assignments and have also been called out to a multitude of incidents to help medical staff already on location perform more efficiently and safely. The trailer pictured below with our tent displayed is our old trailer, however the new trailer which is pictured with the black “Z” stripe is a few feet bigger, still resembles the same aspects and houses all of the above items.

If you would like to learn more, please feel free to reach out to us and if you are interested in becoming a member, visit our website and go to the Members section and click on the link to fill out an application!

On behalf of the members and the admin and line officer staff of the Department, I hope that you and your families have a safe and happy holiday season!

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

This is a picture of our tent set up on an assignment out of our area supporting mutual aid companies.

This is a picture of our tent and older trailer set up on another mutual aid assignment ready for medical staff to utilize. For information on mutual aid, please see our March 2021 article that explains mutual aid in more details.

This is another picture of our tent and older rehab trailer along with R2329 set up for a training assignment on the lake.

This is our new Rehab Trailer. This houses everything that and more that’s listed above. We have used this on drills and training assignments multiple times. This is equipped also with emergency lighting during response and while on scene.

Every now and then we use our trailer to help support our own when they want to train and better themselves. Here, our new trailer, a few members were able to transport a wire entanglement maze to the Philadelphia Fire Department so that it can be used for their trainings!

October 2021

Fall Safety That Everyone Can Practice at Home!

With Halloween quickly approaching and the fall season beginning to show its beautiful colors, there are many different areas that may pose as hazards with the changing of the seasons and the holidays that we all love to celebrate! Below, I will go over a few of those hazards and ways that you can practice safety in your own home.

Halloween! For some of us, both young and old, its one of the most fun holidays that a family can celebrate! With the different costumes, lights, and dramatic effects of props and decorations to list a few, there are areas that you should be aware of when setting up everything and getting ready for the evening of the 31st! Costumes, for kids especially, while some like to be scary and some like to be the prince or princess of their neighborhood and some who want to dress up and play the part of their favorite First Responder, parents must be sure that while roaming the streets and going door to door the kids are seen! This can be done in different ways as to not to take away from the costume:

When choosing costumes, stay away from long trailing fabric

Teach children to stay away from open flames, including jack-o-lanterns with candles in them.

Provide children with flashlights to carry for lighting or glow sticks/reflective stripes as part of their costume or trick or treating bag

With these tips in mind, everyone can have a safe and enjoyable night out Trick-or-Treating!! Enjoy!!

Halloween and the Fall season bring on different areas of decorations that are set up both inside and outside of the house! These can include but not be limited to smoke machines, lights, extension cords, timers, dried corn stalks, hay bales, dried leaves of fall colors, dried flowers, bunches of grain straw, and other flammable items. All of these pose a high hazard of failure if not properly taken care of and a little extra precaution in place.

Be sure not to overload outlets with extension cords and adaptors to allow more plug availability

The end of a smoke machine can become very hot; be sure to keep dried items clear of this area

Dried items and fall décor as with all décor should be kept clear of flammable items as the chance of them catching fire is a lot higher!

Leaves falling means their put to the curb for pick up; be sure not to park over top of these piles in streets! The hot exhaust and items under your can can spark a fire in a matter of minutes!

Be sure that while you’re getting yourself or your little ones ready for Trick-or-Treating, setting up your home to be the best decorated on the block, or getting the inside ready for family and friends to come enjoy parties and dinners, take an extra second or two to be sure that you and your family stay safe and healthy! Always be sure to have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors! Please have a happy, safe and enjoyable Halloween!!

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

June 2021

Situational Awareness and Being Aware of Your Surroundings

Firefighters from day one are always told to “be aware of your surroundings for changing conditions”, “keep your head on a swivel”, and “always expect the unexpected.” We are told this so that we are able to adapt to changing conditions and be able to achieve the end goal of bringing an incident under control as fast as possible. If we weren’t able to keep these few items in the back of our heads as either interior firefighters operating in live fire conditions, operating on a motor vehicle accident in a lane of travel of a major roadway, or even as command officers who are constantly adapting to changing conditions and incoming apparatus, then we wouldn’t be able achieve this end goal. In the fire service, there is a saying that all fire fighters want to achieve after every incident; Everyone Goes Home!

Being aware of changing surroundings happens not only on the fire ground or on an accident scene but off as well. There’s always a level of training or a topic that is taken home with each member. The training of Situational Awareness is one of those types of topics.

On April 27^th the Delran Fire Department along with mutual aid were dispatched to 3 Harper Drive in Delran for a report of a house fire. Just prior to the members even being dispatched other members were outside at the time and noticed a large column of smoke cresting the tree line and knew that something wasn’t right. One of those responding members, a Captain of Delran Fire Department; Station 232, noticed the column in the air and immediately reported on his radio to Central Communications to “place all companies in service” for this assignment. Doing so redispatches the companies notifying them that it is a working house fire and also begins other units assigned to that areas grid to respond in (Previous story mentions and explains the grids and mutual aid). Another member that was in the area took notice of their surroundings and seen the smoke in that area dropped what they were doing and responded to the station to prepare for response to the fire. Delran units and Mutual Aid companies arrived to fire showing in the front of the house and were able to quickly get water on the fire and contain the fire. This wasn’t only a situational awareness but it goes to show how dedicated our members can be to respond to emergencies. These members got to the station promptly and waited for other members to respond into the scene.

Everyone, not only first responders, are able to use Situational Awareness in their own lives every day. It can be used, for example, while driving and keeping aware of changing road conditions or other drivers on the road. Sometimes it happens without you even knowing that you are doing it until you think about the situation and say “I didn’t have to think about it, I just reacted.”

Stay safe everyone!

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

May 2021

May is Motorcycle Awareness Month!

Share the road; Be on the Look Out!

Safe riding practices and cooperation from all road users will help reduce the number of fatalities and injuries on our nation’s highways. But it’s especially important for drivers to understand the safety challenges faced by motorcyclists such as size and visibility, and motorcycle riding practices like downshifting and weaving to know how to anticipate and respond to them. By raising motorists’ awareness, both drivers and riders will be safer sharing the road.

Motorcycle riders continue to be overrepresented in fatal traffic crashes.

So, what can you do? As drivers of cars and trucks, it’s our job to be aware of motorcyclists. So here are four things to remember when we share the road:

Be aware of motorcyclists during warmer months. The warmer the weather, the more likely you’ll be driving alongside riders. Awareness can help you react more quickly to your surroundings.
Check your blind spots. Twice. Remember that motorcycles are much smaller than the car you drive, so they’re not always easy to spot. Checking your blind spots before turning or changing lanes will help you keep motorcyclists safe. In fact, the No. 1 annoyance was drivers who do not check their blind spots before changing lanes.
Don’t get too close. Always maintain an extended safe distance when following a motorcycle. Motorcycles are capable of making a much quicker stop than your car, and sometimes they’ll slow down by downshifting or rolling off the throttle – so you may not see their brake lights. Make sure you are leaving enough distance to stop safely and avoid a possible collision.
Stay in your lane. Motorcycles are allowed the full use of one lane. You should always give riders as much space as possible. Never veer over to share a lane with them.
Drivers also must show extra caution in intersections. Most crashes occur when a driver fails to see a motorcyclist and turns left in front of a motorcycle.
Keep your music in your car, truck or van to a respectable volume. A common phrase that you will hear from Motorcyclists is that “Loud Pipes Saves Lives.” While some of us may not like the loud roars of a motorcycle, it does get the attention of a driver of a vehicle to make them aware and use caution.

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

April 2021

Training in the Delran Fire Department

In the fire service, there are so many different areas that the service covers and provides coverage and support for. With all of these different aspects of the fire service as a whole, there needs to be training so that when the time is called, fire fighters are ready to operate. This training can range from officer classes and leadership classes to help build the officers currently in positions and those aspiring to move up, to junior member training, drivers training, and of course fire fighter training. The members of the Delran Fire Department constantly train on all different areas of training both specialized and specific to a station and equipment that they support, to department training to bring everything together and train on common items that we can encounter on the scene. Some of this training is also done with other departments that we may work with on actual scenes.

The officers of the Department are of course held to a higher standard than the membership that they oversee and command. Before a senior member can run for an office, they must acquire hours of certain classes such as leadership and fire officer courses to be able to be eligible for those positions. If they are elected and while in office, their training does not stop there. Those officers are required to complete mandatory training, attend meetings, calls of service, and as well as partake and also instruct company and department level drills. Our officers meet as well as fully exceed all of these items. Some of the officers attend out of state trainings that are held at expos and other departments academy grounds that specialize solely in certain areas. Those officers then bring the training back to the department to apply it to how it can beneficial the department.

Our Junior Membership (Ages 14-17) are also included in all of our training, as long as they are overseen by an officer or a senior member and it does not involve those members going into what we call a IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health) areas. These areas can include but are not limited to active fire training and certain equipment of the apparatus. When junior members join a station, the first thing that they are trained on is apparatus and the equipment that is on the apparatus. These areas are the most vital because when they are on an active fire scene, they can be very useful in helping to stretch handlines for the fire fighters, helping the driver with items he or she may need, obtaining items for firefighters to help ready them to go into a fire quicker or to assist the fire fighter when they come out by changing out air bottles in their air packs. While they are training on this, they are taught also on hydrant operations. This is what they will be tasked with on actual fire scenes so that when the driver of the truck is ready for water, they will be able to send the truck water in its time of need. The goal is to provide our junior membership with as much knowledge as possible so that they are ready for fire school, when they are eligible (usually around their 18th birthday). The junior members do a lot even “behind the scenes” around the station to help keep the stations in a ready and clean state. Junior members along with doing all of this training, must keep their scholastic grades up! These junior members are certainly an asset to the department and its progression!

The fire fighters on the inside wouldn’t be able to do their job if we didn’t have well trained drivers to man the apparatus and operate the apparatus at its fullest capabilities. Our drivers train at least once a week on Sundays, if not more than once a week if they are on a duty crew or on a drill where an operator is needed. These members put forth multiple hours of training on pump operations, fire fighting foam operations, rescue truck operations, ladder truck operations, specialized unit operations such as a Cascade unit (has capabilities to refill air tanks) or fire police unit (used to help with detouring traffic). Each apparatus has certain hours of training that is needed before those members can become an operator, which includes many hours of classroom teachings and lectures to physical driving and operations of each apparatus.

While all of this training is going on there still a multitude of training areas that our certified members must go through. Certified members must first complete Fire Fighter 1 to become interior certified firefighters. This class alone is 180 hours and, in some cases, can span the course of 5 months. After that they are encouraged to continue their training at the academy (Burlington County Emergency Services Training Center in Westampton). These classes can range from operator classes, to traffic management, incident command, vehicle extrication, confined space classes, etc. While training is available for members at the academy, the department trains almost every Monday night starting at 7:30pm. This training includes the above training as well as other areas of fire fighting such as; water and ice rescue, smoke house training maze, wire entanglement maze, rope rescue, fire fighter survival training (becoming familiar with your air pack and the uses of it in emergencies), and fire fighter rapid intervention crew training (RIC Training). RIC Training is vital; these trained teams of fire fighters are staged on the outside of a large incident in the event there is an emergency with a fire fighter, or team of fire fighters on the inside. These are only a few items all of our members have the opportunity to train on and with.

As stated in our mission statement, the fire service is always changing. With all of the training our members go through, we are doing our part in keeping up with the changes of the technology that is out there to help every firefighter do their job more efficiently. On top of all of the incidents they make, the meetings they attend and hold, and the special assignments that they assist with, the departments membership trains constantly, putting in hundreds of hours of training. If you see us out and about and it doesn’t look like an incident may be going on, please stop and talk with us! I’m sure that someone will be more than pleased to explain the training that may be going on and why we do it. As always, without the support of our residents, the extent of this training wouldn’t be possible!

As always, stay safe and healthy!

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

Live Fire Training

On March 22nd the department held the first live fire training for the year at the Burlington County Emergency Services Training Grounds. This is one of many of our state mandatory drills that need to be done each year. This time crews training on basic hose advancement in the rear of the Class A building. This building is designed to burn only hay in fabricated racks. It will give a semi realistic scenario that crews could face but in a controlled environment. We had crews enter through different doors each time so muscle memory does not develop and presents a different scenario for the training.

Battalion Chief Scott Seybert

March 2021

Mutual Aid; What it Means and How it Looks and Operates

We have been asked a few times on incidents where there was the possibility of a fire but there was no major incident, “What are all of these trucks and people doing here?” “Is this call really as bad as it looks with the amount of apparatus on my street?” We understand your concern and appreciate patience on these incidents. Hopefully this will help to let you understand the whats, whys and whos of these situations.

These questions are summed up into what we call Mutual Aid. Mutual aid is an agreement among responders and agencies to lend assistance across jurisdictional lines. For example, here in Delran we have Mutual Aid agreements with a multitude of agencies depending on where the incident is taking place and also how large scale an incident may be. Those agencies will come in with a predesignated piece of apparatus specific to the needs of an incident on what we call Alarms (1st alarm, 2nd alarm, etc.). It may be an extra ladder truck for larger buildings such as the schools, a strip mall, or a warehouse. It could also be an extra rescue truck for motor vehicle collisions with entrapment, fire police vehicles for traffic control around an incident, or providing manpower for RIC (Rapid Intervention Crew) for the need if a firefighter is trapped in a structure. If the number of alarms go up then other predesignated apparatus are dispatched to help bring the incident under control. Another thing that happens automatically in these levels of incidents, is that mutual aid is dispatched to cover our stations and respond to any other alarms that are in Delran so this way the town is still protected. With all of this going on, it is why you may see more than just Delran trucks and personnel on a scene. Once the scene is under control those units are then released to go back to their respective towns. Below is a table showing response number and times as per the square mile of the response area.

With all of those other units coming in to render help and assistance for us, we as a department also respond out of Delran to surrounding and sometimes not so surrounding towns and cities around Burlington County to lend Mutual Aid to them. Recently we have responded to Cinnaminson for assistance on a motor vehicle collision, Willingboro for coverage calls while they operate on a house fire or other large incident or going to help with that large incident, Delanco to give assistance on an equipment fire inside of a building and also for a motor vehicle collision, and respond along with other departments to Shamong for coverage and scene assistance of a house fire. All the time while going out to help those agencies, being sure that a crew or crews are in town to respond to in town calls.

Mutual aid is common throughout Burlington County. As much as we hope that we never have the need to call on them, we are always grateful to those agencies that assist us on higher priority incidents. I hope that this will give some clarity on why we have those extra trucks on the street, what it means, and how we all operate together to achieve the objective of bringing an incident under control.

As always; Stay safe with any inclement weather that the winter months bring and Stay Healthy with the ongoing Pandemic of Covid-19.

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

January 2021

The Year 2020

With the year 2020 coming to a close, a lot of the world is hoping that it comes to an end sooner than others or to “put 2020 in the past”; while others are still holding on to every day of their lives.

Coming into 2020 as my first year as Chief of the Delran Fire Department, I certainly expected many of things to come in the way of operational needs and necessities and also administrative duties and fulfillments. As always, the health and safety of my members along with the community residents during any incident, drill and event is always paramount! Never would I think that it would be from a pandemic such as COVID-19.

From the beginning of the Pandemic, support came in many ways; from the ranking officers of the department, both in Operations and Administrative, all the way to the members that help to make our department strong every day! We all knew that we had to work together to help fight the spread of COVID-19 anyway possible to help keep ourselves, our families, and the friends and families of the community out on the street safe during incidents and interactions.

Since the middle of March, we have all done our part every day; from taking our temperatures each and every time we come to the stations, to decontaminating the stations and the apparatus practically on an everyday basis if not multiple times a day if needed. So many departments have shared information and communications on any type of updates that may be pertinent to help us be safer, both to our members and their families, and to the residents of our town and neighboring towns that we help protect.

With gatherings being cancelled and family interactions being limited, this brought hard times on many families across the nation. Birthday parties and anniversaries had to be missed or postponed, sporting events were cancelled, and school ceremonies being restructured to celebrate accomplishment. We all felt the sense of wanting to do more for those that missed out on a lot in the past 9 months. Then birthday drive-bys became the new celebration of social distancing! The department immediately was asked to participate in these events and without hesitation we certainly joined in; completing well over 70+ to date!! The sound of sirens and air horns quickly became almost a normal thing to hear on the weekend days, but not just for emergencies, but for celebrating special events for people of all ages! It certainly showed how communities can come together to help to make someone’s day just a little bit better when times are tough!

On top of the pandemic, all of the officers of each station were still tasked with taking care of everyday operations as part of their normal duties. Whether it be training hours to obtain, meetings to attend and facilitate, incidents to respond to at all hours of the day and night and crews to be in charge of, vendors to schedule repairs and renovations with and meet with, or a multitude of other items that came throughout the year; they all met and exceeded these tasks. To say the officers have been outstanding this year and every year would be an understatement to the time and dedication that they give to the department.

Its not only the officers that have made a big impact to the department this year. The members that help to make up the volunteers of the department were patient with “the new norm” in temperature taking, sanitization of the stations and apparatus, new operational standards to meet social distancing protocols, and most importantly the mask wearing. This all being done while still meeting or exceeding criteria’s such as meetings and duty crews to attend, drills to partake in, incidents to respond to and events to help with. These volunteers take time away from their families every day to help either those possibly having the worst day of their lives, or bring a smile to a young child’s face for their birthday, or help celebrate milestones for those that thought a celebration couldn’t happen.

We look forward to the year 2021 to not “just put this year behind us”, but to learn of everything that we experienced in 2020 and capitalize on it to better ourselves and those that we interact with. We will continue to train, to be sure that we are there to serve the township residents of Delran and the surround communities, we will continue to respond to all incidents quickly and efficiently, and we will always provide, in our capacity, the highest degree of service in order to preserve and protect life and property from the devastation of fire and other life-threatening emergencies! That is our mission of the Delran Fire Department.

On behalf of all of brave and dedicated men and women of the Delran Fire Department and from my family to yours everywhere, we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!! Be safe, be humble, and be well!!

Kevin F. Peak
Chief of the Department
Delran Fire Department; Delran Fire District #1

December 2020

Happy Holidays!!

I hope that everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

With fall leaves falling and leaves being gathered up and placed out to the curb for collection, it’s a reminder and a must that you do not park on top of piles of leaves, no matter how big the pile or how long you will be parked there. It takes only minutes for leaves to come into contact with hot exhaust, brakes, and other components of your vehicle to spark a fire. Even small piles can have leaves kicked up and then spark off a small ember to have light off the rest of the pile. There have been other incidents around the county and outside of the county that this has happened, so don’t let this happen to you! On top of not parking over top of piles of leaves, do not let your children or pets play in roadside leaf piles. These are great hiding spots for sure to win a game of Hide and Seek, but they also post a grave danger. Its best to talk to your children of the dangers and recommend other spots to hide and play.

If you are going to have a live tree in your house this year for the holidays, be sure to keep it watered daily! A few other tips for your tree are:

Watering it daily will lessen the chance of it being dried out and be more prone to ignite in the event of a fire or electrical issue.
Be sure that you use UL Listed Christmas lights and pay attention to indoor/outdoor usage. If your tree is artificial, be sure that it also is UL Listed and Flame Resistant.
Check your Christmas lights for wear and tear. Purchase new stands or lights if these show signs of fatigue.
Don’t over load your electrical sockets. Try to keep your stand of lights to three strands or less in a row.
Position your Christmas tree at least three feet away from heat sources that could cause a fire.

With winter months come usually inclement weather. Keep an eye on weather channels and also our Facebook pages to keep up with changing conditions during storms. If your able to, keep your walk ways and paths clear for the instance there is an emergency where Police, Fire and/or EMS need to get to your house. If you know someone who isn’t able to get outside to do this, help out a neighbor or a friend and clear a path for both them and first responders. Another thing to keep clear are fire hydrants! Clearing at least 3 feet all the way around the hydrant will give us visibility of the hydrant and also ample working room around the hydrant in the event of an emergency. Taking steps these steps and other holiday safety tips can help to assure you a little more for a happy holiday and a Happy New Year.

As always if you have any questions you can contact our Fire Prevention office at 865-461-5474 and someone will be able to assist you with any questions or message up on our Delran Fire Department Facebook page for personal one on one talk with an fire department line officer.

Below are a few links you can check out for holiday safety:

https://youtu.be/15hecMK6RQg – Christmas Tree Safety

https://www.nfpa.org/Public-Education/Fire-causes-and-risks/Seasonal-fire-causes/Winter-holidays

https://www.smartsign.com/blog/leaf-piles-unassuming-safety-threat/

From Our Families to yours; hope you have a great, safe and healthy holiday season!

Kevin F. Peak, Chief of the Department

The End Of Volunteering

As I started thinking about collaborating words to paper one last time as Battalion Chief of Station 231, I considered what topic to which I should articulate into the image of the reader’s mind. After considering several topics I decided to pay homage to the many members that had paved the road before me, the people that inspired and guided me in my early days of firefighting, and to look at the end of a volunteer’s career.

Unlike most professions, the fire service is one that has professional volunteers. In this I mean, people that take great pride in honing their skills and developing their talents to be the best they can be for little or no pay. They not only respond to a call for help at any given time of day or night, but train for endless hours to make sure that when the time comes, they are ready to answer that call. They stay on top of everything from the latest tool that comes out, to the old school ways of putting the “wet stuff on the red stuff”. There are thousands upon thousands of people that volunteer every day in the USA and give their whole lives to the profession that has no end. Most careers today you work for period of time and then look forward to a retirement with a pension or a sizable 401k to live off of. But in the realm of volunteer firefighting, you serve your time (some people for fifty years or more) and then just slowly fade away.

Whatever the reason, people find themselves at a turning point in their lives. The loss of heath and old age is probably the hardest one of all to accept by the truly dedicated ones. It’s hard to find in yourself the want to serve, this slowly becomes overwhelmed by the inability to serve. The heart and mind still stir every time the pager goes off only to have the body shout out loud and clear that you are not the young high school kid you use to be. That you aren’t capable to run the 5 blocks to the fire house to hop on a truck and still be able to function. But instead, today you are the old man that huffs and puffs just to get in the car and drive to the station. Waking up in the middle of the night to respond to the call for help, now takes minutes not seconds for you to get dress and out the door. The stair steps you use to run up and down are now a daily challenge to negotiate just to live your life. Firefighting is a young man’s game. The physical effects that are imposed on the body while battling a fire or working a rescue take their toll.

With fifty years in the service, I have seen a lot of good people come and go in our department. Many of which gave their whole lives to the service. Responding to calls, day and night, leaving family and friends behind to help others. Many leaving jobs and sacrificing pay to come to the aid of others. But yet when they reach that time, there is no fanfare. They just slowly start to fade away.

One of my strongest memory of this is of a past chief of Delran Fire Company No.1, Horace Mc Curdy. Horace was one of those people that you could almost always count on to respond to a call. Day or night and after serving his term as chief he became that person that always showed up to drive leaving his business sometimes for hours on end to make sure the trucks got out. But as he got older, he faded away like many others who had gone before him. None of them ever officially retiring. I know that at least some of us miss them coming around. The world changes, yes! But the wealth of history lost by the fading away of these members is a shame. Today, firefighting has changed so much, even since I first started back in 1971 but the memories, I have of the older members will never be gone. The shame of it all is, that many fade into black over the years only to be recognized when they die. People like Horace Anderson who was Station Chief when I started my career and Joe Leusner, Sr, who always had only the best things to say about the Fire Department and its members. Both of them passing way this past year. They taught me so much as I began my world of firefighting.

People like my uncle Mike Ely who helped lay the building blocks of the old firehouse. It was he that helped orchestrate me getting my nick name “The Boy” as he would always be asking my father “Where’s the boy?” or “How’s the boy?” It wasn’t long before “The Boy” meant me. They had so many stories to tell that are now lost forever.

Lastly to my greatest lost memory, my father, who too was a past chief of the Delran Fire Company No. 1 and a Commissioner. Your words have come to light to me in this past year. You told me when I asked how do you know it’s time to hanging up my helmet, that “When the time comes you will know it.” Dad, you were right. And with everything happening in this world today with the virus and firefighters having to think about wearing body armor, I know! So, I have decided it’s time for me to start fading away as well. This year I am giving up my position as Battalion Chief to allow a younger, more able group to take over the helm. I am not planning of disappearing just yet, but let’s just say I’m not looking to be one of the top responders anymore. My love of the fire service will never die and my respect for the great people I have met over my years in the service will always be of great pride and respect. I would like to thank the DFD and its members for the respect you have shown me and for fun time we have shared together. Even though, sometimes those fun times were being in the most dangerous of places. But it was still fun.

I say Thank You and may God bless the DFD.

Forman M. Shemeley, III

Through the smoke and flames they raise to the challenge

From the beginning in 1916 until sometime around 1982 whenever there was a need for an aerial ladder truck to fight a fire or to make a rescue from a high place in Delran. The Delran Fire Department would have to rely on towns such as Riverside or Palmyra to supply one through a mutual aid agreement. Of course, there was some delay back then because it was usually a “call once we got there and found we needed it situation”. Back then each town had their own dispatchers and, in some cases, their own radio frequencies. Not to mention they all had their own type of hose.

Today it’s not like that thank goodness. Today we automatically get multiple companies dispatched from a central dispatching system throughout the whole county. Thanks to national standardization we also pretty much use the same types of hose.

That being said, around 1978, the members of Delran Fire Company No. 1 started to petition The Delran Board of Fire Commissioners to allow for the purchase of a ladder truck. This wasn’t easy task to convince them. The Commissioners made us prove that there was a need for a ladder truck in our town. We had to show them that the town was growing and that even though the tallest structure in town was only scheduled to be 4 stories, we needed 100ft to reach. So, using basic geometry we showed how 100ft of ladder would be used up quickly on a call trying to reach a structure. In the end they felt we proved our point and felt that they could justify the purchase to the town.

In April of 1979 the dream came true and we took ownership of a used 1967 American La France 100ft Aerial Ladder from the Abington Fire Department in Abington Pa. The cost of this truck was $69,.000, which even for that time was a lot less than the $200,000 a new one would have cost. Of course, there was some added cost incurred as the concrete apron in front of the station had to be adjusted to allow the truck to make it into the station but that would have become an issue in later years anyway as the size of fire trucks continued to grow. This ladder responding to large scale calls not only for us and but our surrounding towns as well. Many times, our ladder was the story picture in the newspaper. By 1993 this 1960’s ladder had proved its worth but had started to show signs of wear and tear. So again, the Commissioners were approached to secure the funds to replace this useful piece of equipment.

In 1994 a new Supthen 100ft mid-ship ladder tower was purchase and placed in service. This new ladder had many new safety features and was easier and quicker to set up. Plus, it had the advantage of having a bucket to work from. The cost of this new truck was a whopping $750,000. This newer truck has served us well over the years. Responding to calls as far away as Trenton NJ and as big as the Dietz and Watson fire in Delanco in September 2013. It has been used for all kinds of things besides fighting fires as well. It has been called upon to be a high point for rescues, the occasional cat in the tree and the honor of flying our country’s flag at all kinds of events. These events are usually to honor a fallen hero. But on some cases, it has been used to welcome home a hero as well.

By Battalion Chief Forman M. Shemeley III

November 2020

Slow Down. Move Over. Be Safe

With the months of October and November comes a lot to be aware about! On top of the holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving and daylight savings within those months, there are two major items that come up in these months that should always be a priority: Fire Safety Week and National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week.

Fire Safety Week is always held during the week of the 9^th in commemoration of the Great Chicago Fire which began on October 8^th, 1871 and killed more than 250 people, left 100,000 homeless and destroyed over 17,000 Structures. Fire safety week, even though it has since passed and is only one week a year, should always be practiced. Have working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, charged and ready fire extinguishers, always keep your cooking attended and making a “kid-safe” area while cooking with hot food or drink preparation, and have and practice a home fire escape plan! These are just a few conversation points that you can have with your family.

National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week is coming up November 9^th to November 15, 2020. As with years in the past and incidents still constantly happening nationwide, the stress on 6 key words are imposed more this week; those are Slow Down. Move Over. Be Safe. Each driver and passenger on the roads have their role to play in this matter. If you see emergency personnel in the roadway or on the shoulders of a road, slow down and move over. This goes for more than just police, fire and EMS personnel. This extends to construction workers, tow truck operators, DOT Personnel, etc. Do you part in helping to lessen these types of incidents and tragedies. Slow down. Move over. Be Safe!

Chief Kevin Peak

We’ve come a long way baby

Back around the year 1916 a group of people gathered in a garage with one thing in mind. That was the common interest of protecting our town from the effects of uncontrolled fire. These were to become the first members of Delran Fire Company #1. It was hard during the first years begging a penny here a dime there to raise money to purchase equipment. The members today will never know or even truly understand how hard those first members had to work to make it happen. Today the Delran Board of Fire Commissioners provide us with the very best of equipment to do our jobs efficiently, effectively, and safely.

Back in the early days the male only members, would along with their wives and families held dinners to raise money to buy trucks, coats and boots. Pictured are some of the tickets sold for the dinners.

Talk about hygiene, back then, there was no gear for each member. There was maybe five sets of boots and coats hanging on the fire truck that was a “first come first get” situation. You were lucky if your size 8 foot wasn’t in a size 12 boot or worst going the other way.

Back then, it was considered unladylike for women to partake in the business of firefighting. So, for the ladies there was the Ladies Auxiliary. They worked harder than the men baking and cooking goods to sell to the public to help raise money. Today, however, women are a very big part of the fire service. Many proving better than the men. In fact, Delran Fire Department can boast that we had one of the first female Fire Chief in the State of New Jersey.

Donations like the dinners, where a big part of how the Bridgeboro Fire Company got started. But as the town grew and the demands of what the fire service was requested to do, also grew, it became harder and harder to provide the equipment needed on donations alone. Many of the then growing population of Delran were people coming from the cities, they had never heard of “VOLUNTEER” Fire Departments and would look at the members crossed eyed when they came door to door begging for money. So, in the late 1960’s early 1970’s the two fire companies in town got together and proceeded to form The Delran Fire Commission to oversee the collection of tax money to provide the residents with the services that were needed and in doing so became one fire department with two stations.

Today, Delran Fire Department is called upon to respond to all kinds of incidents. Of course, we still are equipped and trained to fight fire but we also have to equip and train to respond to accidents, Hazardous Materials incidents, rescues of all sorts, and yes, even the occasional old “cat in the tree”.

Firefighters today spend countless hours training preparing to respond to any call for help. We take pride in being able to figure out the toughest of problems. In the first years of the fire companies, they maybe ran 50 calls a year. In the last few years that number has grown to 600 to 700 calls a year. Meanwhile the number of people volunteering has declined, putting that added load on the ones that do. Meaning that the members of both stations leave whatever they are doing, any time, day or night to answer the call of duty. Sometimes two or three times a day. Leaving their own families in the middle of special events or in the middle of storms to respond to the calls for help from the town folk. In bad storms these members have been known to live at the firehouse for days and only go home to change clothes and take a shower.

So yes, we have come a long way baby! The founding fathers of our century old station would never imagine the duties and responsibilities that are place on the fire service today. They would have never thought of us responding to the countless fire alarms and CO alarms we respond to every year. But I know, as far as we have come today, tomorrow is what we as the Delran Fire Department will prepare for.

Thank you and may you find yourself better tomorrow than you are today.

Battalion Chief Forman M. Shemeley III

ESI Training

On Monday October 26th, the Delran Fire Department gathered for a rescue tool demo, put on by ESI. We are always interested in learning about the tools we work with everyday along with what we may purchase in the near future.

Josh Stellwag, Battalion Chief/EMT