Paid Fire Department Should Be Studied In Holmdel, Residents Say

HOLMDEL, NJ — A study of response times for the volunteer fire department in Holmdel is still being compiled, Deputy Mayor DJ Luccarelli said Tuesday night at the Township Committee meeting.

In response to resident Ron Emma's question, Luccarelli said he met for more than an hour with Holmdel Township Police Department Sgt. David D’Arcy, who is also the training officer for the Holmdel Fire Department, to research response times.

Luccarelli said call logs have been printed out and D'Arcy is researching specific questions raised in September by former Deputy Mayor Prakash after a fire on Barbera Drive burned a large house to the ground.

The matter needs more research and data, Luccarelli said, and all of the questions "are being investigated."

Meanwhile, Emma and another resident said the committee should be open to studying the concept of a "hybrid" fire squad.

Ron Emma said the house fires that Holmdel has seen in the past few years have completely destroyed the houses with no chance to save them.

Emma said he was not "disparaging the great volunteers" in the fire department, but he suggested it's "well overdue" for the committee to look into the potential cost of "hybrid" paid firefighter organization, even on a part-time basis.

Terence Wall, a Board of Education member and a former committeeman, spoke at the public portion and agreed that supplementing fire protection with a paid firefighters should be "priced out" to see if it is feasible.

Lucarelli the Township Committee will continue to look at all the options that best serve Holmdel.

Regarding the major fire at 10 Barbera Drive on Sept. 21, it left the family homeless and prompted Santhana, also a resident of Barbera Drive, to call for an investigation into how the fire response was handled.

The Holmdel Fire Station at 12 Crawfords Corner Road is the main fire station for the township. The fire house on Centerville Road provides a back-up supporting role.

Santhana asked the Township Committee to conduct a "formal investigation" and to respond to his concerns at a following Township Committee meeting. While the committee did not make that requested deadline, they are addressing the concerns, Luccarelli said.

Santhana requested information on the following issues:

• He asked the committee to look into why was there was a delay in engaging the ladder truck.
• He also asked if fire apparatus is being routinely tested "to ensure it is available at a moment's notice."
• With many tree-lined streets, he further asked "are we training our fire crew to handle a ladder effectively and quickly" in those conditions.
• He also asked if fire crews are trained or can be permitted to shut off gas lines.

Luccarelli said he expects to be able to report to the committee and the public perhaps as soon as the next committee meeting on the concerns raised by Santhana. But it is an internal investigation and he said he was not sure if the report will be immediately discussed in the public portion of the meeting.

Members of the Monmouth County Fire Marshall’s Office had taken the lead on the investigation of the fire and the cause is still under investigation, township fire marshal David Olsen, fire official/fire sub-code official, said last month.