‘Without Mutual Aid, Firefighting Would Be Near Impossible’

For those familiar with many of the major incidents the Herald covers that involve fire response, the use of the mutual aid system is evident in Cape May County.
Mutual aid, for those unfamiliar, is the use of neighboring departments to assist on scene within the original municipality. If a town such as Tuckahoe, for example, were to have a working house fire, firefighters from surrounding towns such as Seaville and Marmora would likely respond to assist in the extinguishment.
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In neighborhoods of Cape May County, mutual aid has become a necessity in order to efficiently protect the lives and properties of the area. With a majority of the county protected by volunteer fire departments, response by departments during the daytime hours are understandably lower than evening and weekends, as a majority of members work outside of their department districts.
As a result, several municipalities have automatic mutual aid dispatching procedures for the daytime hours when the difficulty of adequate crews arises. In fact, many municipalities in the county have begun to increase the use of automatic mutual aid response from neighboring departments upon the initial dispatch of any confirmed working fire, or the report of a fire alarm at any high-risk location, such as a school.
Not only is the uncertainty of manpower an issue, the rural makeup of the area often makes the availability of water a challenge for departments fighting fires. While most of the island towns, as well as some parts of Middle and Lower Township, have fire hydrants at strategic places, many of the fire districts in the county do not have such a luxury.
When this is the case, mutual aid is a valuable tool to provide water to the firefighting effort. Often, departments from several districts away are required to extinguish a fire. The Cape May County Tanker Task Force consists of fire apparatus from all over the county, specifically designed for transporting large amounts of water. Often, this group is utilized at the scene of large-scale fires.
It’s not an uncommon sight to see departments from Cumberland and Atlantic counties respond to a fire in Cape May County to provide water in those areas without hydrants as well. The same can be said for the departments in both Dennis and Upper Townships, who are requested by departments in Cumberland and Atlantic for large incidents.
Mutual aid has been a common sight on structure fires for years in the area, but recently it has also become an invaluable tool for several other types of emergencies as well. Often times, a fire company simply doesn’t have the manpower or tools required to safely extricate a person trapped within a motor vehicle.
Many municipalities, such as Green Creek and Rio Grande, have an automatic mutual aid system that dispatches both departments for a motor vehicle accident with reported entrapment in either district.
Even if a department doesn’t need assistance at the scene of an accident, often times all of their manpower is being utilized at the scene of the original incident. For scenes that require helicopter landing zones, or multiple incidents in the same district at the same time, mutual aid response is required to ensure that all emergencies are dealt with in a timely manner.
Mutual aid isn’t limited to the fire service side of emergency response. Emergency Medical Services often need help from neighboring departments also. Mass casualty incidents, such as the June 2010 tour bus accident in Atlantic City that injured 25 people, require large-scale response from ambulances. Much like the tanker task force, the Cape May County EMS Task Force dispatches ambulances from across the area for mass-casualty events, if needed.
While many departments might have not-so-pleasant opinions of others, and may appear very competitive when it comes to events such as Christmas parades or the Fireman’s Convention, when push comes to shove, all firefighters are here to do the same task. Whether your jacket says Cape May, Town Bank, Dennisville, Tuckahoe, Goshen or Wildwood – A firefighter is a firefighter. And without the use of mutual aid, firefighting in Cape May County would be near impossible. Stay safe.
Knoll, 21, of Eldora, can be contacted by email at beyondtheflamescmc@gmail.com. He is a student at Rowan University.