Alarm bells

A shortage of volunteer firefighters is straining the Middlesex Borough Fire Department, according to its chief, with financial incentives being considered to draw new members.

“People in town need to volunteer or we will not have a fire department,” Chief Ken Bartok told Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk and the Borough Council on Tuesday, Oct. 8.

Bartok said a shortage of volunteer firefighters is affecting towns throughout the Garden State. The collective current membership of Middlesex’s four fire companies is 61 members. As recently as 2018, it was 82 members, according to Bartok.

“That’s a huge reduction in manpower, particularly during the day,” Bartok said.

To cover daytime gaps, when members are employed out-of-town and cannot respond to fires, many New Jersey towns have reached mutual aid agreements with nearby municipalities.

Bartok said five new recruits are training at a fire academy. Longterm, he mentioned financial incentives are a potential tool to lure Middlesex residents to serve as firefighters.

The mayor and council did not weigh-in on the issue of monetary incentives, at least not publicly. Bartok said the possibility of a firefighter response stipend and property tax reduction have been discussed.

“Some may not agree with me on this stipend, but the world is changing,” Bartok said. In some cases, people are dissuaded from volunteering because of their need to work two paying jobs, he noted.

Bound Brook uses a pay-per-call system to incentivize fire company membership. Firefighters are paid a stipend, per call, at the end of the fiscal year, according to the Squad 23 Facebook page.

In nearby Warren Township, two Township Committee candidates have proposed a property tax freeze coupled with a property tax credit for local residents who volunteer for the fire department and EMS.

New York State has begun paying a stipend to volunteer firefighters of $$500 to $1,250 upon the completion of required training courses. The initial stipends totaling $140,250 were paid to 105 firefighters in June.

Details of a potential response stipend were not released by either Bartok or borough officials, It was not stated whether it would be funded by local taxpayers. The MBFD’s need for members had not been mentioned at recent council meetings prior to Bartok’s presentation. In the past, however, officials have occasionally commented that to lose a volunteer fire department would lead to more expensive options for providing that emergency service.

Middlesex voters approved the Length of Service Awards Program (LOSAP) for local firefighters in 2019. LOSAP is akin to an employer’s 401K, Bartok said, paying an amount into an account annually if a firefighter responds to a specified percentage of calls. It differs from a pay-per-call stipend.

During Bartok’s presentation, he also gave a brief description of the MBFD’s history and organizational structure.

The MBFD has four fire companies – Lincoln, Parker, Pierce and Beechwood. While some might question whether the borough needs that many, Bartok said it allows for quick response time.

Typically, the MBFD responds to a fire in less than eight minutes, the chief said. He noted that rapid arrival time for firefighters is critical, as a fires doubles in size quickly.

Lincoln Hose Co. was the first of the four companies, established in 1905 when Middlesex Borough was still part of Piscataway Township. Middlesex became a separate municipality in 1913.

The four companies also provide a benefit when Middlesex experiences a large scale a flood, said Bartok. Although sections of the borough get isolated from each other during those floods, each section has one of the four fire companies within it, he said. 

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