Four volunteer Manville (NJ) firefighters have been reprimanded, with one being expelled, from the North End Volunteer Fire Company for traveling to assist a hard-hit region of the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, reports WHYY (http://bit.ly/Tu7SEO).
The four firefighters drove to Toms River following the hurricane to lend a hand to the East Dover Fire Company. Toms River sustained several million dollars of damage, mostly from wind and falling trees.
The fire chief did not reprimand them for their volunteerism, said Manville emergency manager Ken Otrimski.
The issue was one of following procedure. “Then everything is put on paper and everyone is accounted for,” he said.
Emergency requests for assistance typically travel between county officials. The state has a law against firefighters “self-deploying.”
NJ.com (http://bit.ly/V6tztL) details that volunteer firefighter Gary Barras did have permission from Manville Capt. Joe Barilla to deploy to the shore, to help out his hometown of Toms River. But Barras did not have permission to bring volunteers with him, Otrimski said.
According to the Fire Service Resource Emergency Deployment Act of 2003, the county must coordinate a plan to effectively respond in emergencies in an organized fashion, and “upon receiving notification from a county coordinator of the existence of an emergency incident or local fire emergency disaster, the state fire coordinator shall determine whether the emergency incident or local fire emergency disaster requires the deployment of fire services resources from other parts of the state.”
Otrimski said the Ocean County fire coordinator put a radio call out to all county dispatchers saying Ocean needed help, and the Somerset County fire coordinator then sent out a message to all 21 Somerset municipalities to find out if anyone was available.
“Somerset County did muster up a crew of tankers that went down for a 24-hour shift,” Otrimski said, but Barras and the other Manville firefighters were not part of that crew.
“We’re not denying any volunteers, but four guys left and we didn’t know they were gone — God forbid they were going to get lost or hurt,” he said.
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