East Bergen Firefighters Mutual Aid Association

HISTORY

Organized in 1946 to create a more efficient system of helping neighboring fire departments in the event of a fire or a major disaster. The six original East Bergen communities were: Fort Lee, Leonia, Palisades Park, Fairview, Cliffside Park and Ridgefield.

Today ten communities are involved in this association: Fort Lee, Leonia, Palisades Park, Fairview, Cliffside Park, Ridgefield, Edgewater, Englewood Cliffs, Tenafly and Englewood. Fort Lee has been designated as the central fire communication center which maintains and monitors 24 hour radio and telephone communications with all members of the Association.

Regular meetings are held every other month to discuss firematic problems and ideas. Over the years, the Association has adopted mutual policies to enhance the bond of cooperation.

Among the advantages of the Association is the fact that any Incident Commander has at their dispaosal approximately 610 firefighters and 60 pieces of apparatus, including 12 aerial trucks. This capability gives the residents the extra protection that many large municipalities lack.

Keeping current with the ever changing trends in the fire service, the member towns have developed and created vatious special response units to handle many situations. Some of these are: a field communications unit (FIELD-COM) which was placed in service in 1980  (with the Fort Lee FD and then replaced in 1993 with a new unit with the Leonia FD) that can respond to any situation and handle radio traffic between many departments and agencies; the Fort Lee FD and Englewood Cliffs FD (1981) established a High Angle Rescue Teams (HART) that can assist at a cliff or high-rise incident where normal means of rescuing an endangered person are not available; in 1988 a Mutual Aid Foam Bank with the Ridgefield FD was started and available to all member towns; also in 1988 the Association changed its name from the East Bergen Firemen's Mutual Aid Association to the East Bergen Firefighters Mutual Aid Association.

Truss identification emblems for roof & floor construction was adopted in 1988; a Rapid Incident Command System (RICS) was adopted in 1991 so that all towns can communicate with common language and provide a safe fire ground control for firefighters. In 1995 the Tenafly FD joined the Association and an agreement was made between the Association and the Mid-Bergen Hazardous Materials Response Team to cover all East Bergen HAZMAT incidents. In 1997 the new "By-Laws and Procedure Journal" was adopted as well as a new "Fire Dispatch Procedure Manual". Procedures for a FAST Unit and "Guidelines for Helicopter Safe Landing Zone" and OEM were also adopted. In 2001 the Englewood FD joined the Association and new guidelines for terrorism, water emergencies and the "Bergen County Arson Task Force Response Guidelines" were added as well as the Associations mission statement.

On September 11, 2001 an East Bergen task force that consisted of five heavy rescues and five ladder trucks were dispatched to New York City and assigned to a staging area of the FDNY's 16th Battalion.