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<title>Bergenfield Fire Department</title>
<link>http://www.bergenfieldfd.org/</link>
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<title>Members Respond For An Elevator Call</title>
<link>http://www.bergenfieldfd.org/news/view/1485</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:27:56 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[At approximately&nbsp;10pm on Thursday night&nbsp;the&nbsp;Bergenfield&nbsp;Fire Department&#39;s Alert Fire&nbsp;Co.#1 was dispatched&nbsp;to a apartment building&nbsp;on the report&nbsp;of a stuck occupied elevator.&nbsp; Deputy Chief Lopez&nbsp;responded with&nbsp;an engine&nbsp;and a ladder.&nbsp; Upon arrival&nbsp;officers of the Bergenfield Police Department had confirmed an elevator car stuck between floors with 12 occupants in the car.&nbsp; Contact was made with the occupants&nbsp;and they were reassured that rescue&nbsp;operations were underway.
As standard elevator response steps were executed the exact problem with the&nbsp;car came into focus&nbsp;and the eventual rescue of the occupants became more complicated.&nbsp; Since the car was&nbsp;mid-floor the best&nbsp;option&nbsp;as to manually&nbsp;lower the elevator to the&nbsp;next&nbsp;full floor and walk the&nbsp;occupants off the&nbsp;car.&nbsp; When&nbsp;the elevator controls&nbsp;were accessed and locked&nbsp;out for safety it was determined that the elevator had apparently&nbsp;exceeded its safe speed which deployed&nbsp;the safety brakes on the&nbsp;car.&nbsp;These brakes are similar to the&nbsp;parking brake in your car&nbsp;and can only&nbsp;be released by a trained elevator&nbsp;technician once&nbsp;all&nbsp;occupants&nbsp;are removed. Plans for&nbsp;manually lowering the&nbsp;car had to be&nbsp;abandoned and the&nbsp;operation began to plan for removing the occupants by ladder to the next highest floor.
After assuring the power and&nbsp;hydraulics to&nbsp;the elevator were locked out to prevent&nbsp;unintentional movement firefighters brought&nbsp;a folding ladder&nbsp;up to the top floor&nbsp;and began to manually&nbsp;unlock and open the elevator doors.&nbsp;An ambulance was requested&nbsp;to respond&nbsp;as a precaution due to increased&nbsp;risk posed&nbsp;by the removal operation and also to evaluate the occupants who had&nbsp;been subjected to increased heat&nbsp;levels in&nbsp;the elevator car.
After unlocking and manually opening the elevator doors the folding&nbsp;ladder was slid down into the elevator car and the occupants were assisted&nbsp;up and out of the&nbsp;car one by one.&nbsp; The occupants were temporarily corralled until they&nbsp;were identified&nbsp;and assessed by EMS&nbsp;personnel.&nbsp;All occupants were cleared&nbsp;by EMS and continued their visit to the building.
The elevators were&nbsp;left locked&nbsp;out until&nbsp;the following morning when trained&nbsp;elevator maintenance personnel&nbsp;could respond and&nbsp;safely return them to service.&nbsp; All&nbsp;emergency&nbsp;responders&nbsp;were clear of&nbsp;the scene&nbsp;in approx. 90 minutes without any injuries.
The incident&nbsp;once again demonstrated the cooperative spirit which runs&nbsp;through the&nbsp;Bergenfield Fire Department, Ambulance&nbsp;Corps., and Police Departments has all responders worked together&nbsp;to ensure the well being of the occupants, the safety&nbsp;of all responders was also&nbsp;paramount throughout this incident and due&nbsp;to the cooperation and training&nbsp;of all&nbsp;involved&nbsp;the end result&nbsp;was a&nbsp;total success.&nbsp;

&nbsp;
]]></description>
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<title>Members Respond To Utility Emergency</title>
<link>http://www.bergenfieldfd.org/news/view/1482</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[In the early&nbsp;evening of&nbsp;Wednesday,&nbsp;February 1, 2012 the Bergenfield Fire Department&#39;s Alert Fire Company No.1 was dispatched to a South Washington Avenue commercial building for a&nbsp;hazardous condition.&nbsp; Passing&nbsp;police patrol officers were alerted to water coming from the&nbsp;foundation&nbsp;of the building&nbsp;and suspected&nbsp;broken&nbsp;pipe.&nbsp; Fire department units entered the&nbsp;building and found water&nbsp;had filled&nbsp;the basement&nbsp;to approximately 9-feet.&nbsp; The building&#39;s gas and&nbsp;electric utilities&nbsp;were completely&nbsp;submerged and assistance&nbsp;from the utility company was requested.&nbsp;&nbsp;United Water also responded and turned off the water in the street to prevent further flooding.
Due to concerns about potential impact of the&nbsp;water pressing outward on&nbsp;the exposed&nbsp;foundation walls the&nbsp;BFD special&nbsp;called its utility vehicle to the scene with pumps.&nbsp;&nbsp;Members of the BFD deployed&nbsp;two portable&nbsp;pumps and began&nbsp;to pump down&nbsp;the water level.&nbsp;&nbsp;With both pumps running at&nbsp;capacity the water level was lowered&nbsp;8-inches&nbsp;in approximately&nbsp;30 minutes.&nbsp; When the&nbsp;water level&nbsp;no longer posed a risk&nbsp;to the foundation&#39;s stability the property&nbsp;was turned back&nbsp;over&nbsp;to the property representative.&nbsp; During this response&nbsp;an additional alarm was&nbsp;transmitted for a problem&nbsp;with a furnace in a residence which was handled&nbsp;by Prospect Fire Co.#1.
While the Bergenfield Fire Department does not pump&nbsp;out basements as a general practice such as during heavy storms or power failures&nbsp;circumstances that pose a hazard to&nbsp;a building structure or utilities are addressed to the extent&nbsp;necessary to remove the hazards.&nbsp; As the&nbsp;evening&nbsp;demonstrated the BFD strives&nbsp;to provide&nbsp;the best practical service to our community&nbsp;no matter the time&nbsp;of day or night.&nbsp; Please don&#39;t ever hesitate to call&nbsp;on us should&nbsp;you suspect&nbsp;a fire or other&nbsp;hazardous condition is occurring.&nbsp; We will take&nbsp;whatever action is practical to mitigate the&nbsp;hazard to protect life and property.]]></description>
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<title>Engine Responds To New Milford</title>
<link>http://www.bergenfieldfd.org/news/view/1472</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:14:05 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
At approximately&nbsp;0042 hrs., Central Dispatch requested a Bergenfield engine to respond to New Milford&nbsp;Company 1 to stand-by while&nbsp;they worked a fire&nbsp;in Oradell.

Engine 744 with a crew of 5 along with Deputy Chief Lopez (DC1)&nbsp;responded&nbsp;on the run.&nbsp; While in New Milford&nbsp;they took in no calls and were returned in just over an hour.]]></description>
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<title>Minor Fire In A Gas Station</title>
<link>http://www.bergenfieldfd.org/news/view/1453</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jan 2012 22:32:20 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
	Late in the morning of Saturday, January 14, 2012 the Bergenfield Fire
	Department was dispatched to a North Washington Avenue gas station on the
	report of a fire in the repair garage.&nbsp; A general alarm assignment
	consisting of two engines, ladder truck, rescue, and three chiefs responded
	along with the Bergenfield Volunteer Ambulance Corps as a precaution due to
	the potential for injury to firefighters.&nbsp; First arriving police department
	units confirmed a fire inside the building involving acetylene tanks and
	provided updates to the Fire Chief.&nbsp; Bergenfield Police Department officers,
	under the direction of Sgt. Brian Dalton, quickly established a wide safety
	perimeter on all surrounding streets and evacuated nearby pedestrians due to
	the obvious risk if the cylinders ruptured.&nbsp; Fire Chief James Lodato arrived
	shortly after and established command of the incident, directing the first
	due engine and ladder to take initial action to mitigate the emergency.
	&nbsp;

	An adequate water supply was established by two area fire hydrants and a
	hoseline was stretched into the gas station parking lot.&nbsp; Firefighters
	entered the service bays and were able to use a wheeled cart to remove the
	oxygen and acetylene tanks from the building as a means to prevent the fire
	from spreading to the two cars on service lifts.&nbsp; Once outside the building
	a water fog was utilized to cool both cylinders while the remaining gases
	burned at their safety vents.&nbsp; The temperature of both cylinders was
	monitored via a thermal imaging camera and the cooling fog was effective at
	preventing rupture of the cylinders.&nbsp; Please see the photos below for a
	screen shot of the thermal imaging camera showing both cylinders in bright
	white, indicating the heat they had been subject to from the fire.

	
	Within 45 minutes the cylinders had cooled and safety discharged their
	gasses to the open air.&nbsp; Fire units began to break down the hoselines and
	hydrants allowing some traffic flow to be restored in the area.&nbsp; An
	investigation was initiated by fire department investigators and later
	handed over to the Fire Official who took possession of the damaged cylinder
	regulators and torch for further investigation.&nbsp; Both cylinders, while
	severely damaged by heat and flame, were able to be safely removed by the
	gas supplier and all fire department apparatus departed the scene in just
	over an hour.

	
	Given the volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Washington Avenue on a
	Saturday morning this incident created an increased risk of urgency for all
	of the emergency responders.&nbsp; The cooperation provided by Sgt. Dalton and
	his officers along with the Bergenfield Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
	complimented the response of the Bergenfield Fire Department to bring this
	hazardous situation to a safe and uneventful conclusion.&nbsp; The commitment and
	skill of all involved agencies combined to turn a potentially disastrous
	event into little more than traffic delays for some area motorists.
]]></description>
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<title>BFD Responds To Rector Court Home</title>
<link>http://www.bergenfieldfd.org/news/view/1442</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:05:02 +0000</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[
At 0710 hrs on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 the Bergenfield Fire Department was dispatched to a private residence on Rector Court for a carbon monoxide alarm activation.&nbsp; A daytime still alarm consisting of two engines, ladder, and command officer responded to the call.&nbsp; Upon arrival the resident reported waking to an activated alarm from her plug-in carbon monoxide detector.&nbsp; Utilizing air monitoring equipment firefighters checked the premises and determined that no carbon monoxide levels were present.&nbsp; By using two different air monitoring devices the fire department is able to ensure that the equipment is working properly, especially if no hazards are initially detected.&nbsp; In this case the carbon monoxide alarm was just over 10-years old and was sounding a malfunction which is consistent with the end of its useful service life.&nbsp; The resident was advised to replace the alarm with a new unit and all apparatus was available from the scene within 20-minutes.
Residents are reminded that both smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms have a limited life expectancy.&nbsp; Like most other electronic devices or appliances in our homes these alarms have a limited life cycle and their reliability can deteriorate over time.&nbsp; Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms should be replaced before they reach 10-years of service or at any point when they malfunction or suffer physical damage.&nbsp; The statistical safety value of properly maintained smoke and carbon monoxide &nbsp;alarms far exceeds their initial cost as they have a proven track record of detecting smoke and hazards before occupants are seriously injured or killed.
If you are elderly, handicapped, or otherwise unable to check your alarms and change the batteries please contact the&nbsp;Bergenfield Fire Department, Fire Prevention Bureau at (201) 387-4055 Ext. 4074 to request assistance.&nbsp; The Bergenfield Fire Department does not charge for its responses to emergency calls or to assist residents.&nbsp; Please feel free to call upon us at any time if a fire occurs or if you suspect a hazardous condition exists with your appliances or utilities.
]]></description>
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