Kevin Shea
nj.com
(TNS)
In 2015, a house in Ewing burned out of control as volunteer firefighters struggled mightily to get water on the fire during the critical initial moments of such a blaze.
Under duress and mounting frustration, the chief on the scene resorted to calling for help from the career Trenton Fire Department.
And it was caught on a cellphone, footage of which made the rounds among residents, firefighters – and township officials.
Nearly a decade later, such a fire would likely look different, as Ewing has grown from nine career firefighters that worked day shifts to a 31-member department that operates a crew 24 hours a day.
And town officials told NJ Advance Media they continue to grow and would like to one day staff the firehouse at Trenton-Mercer Airport, the county-owned airport which is inside Ewing’s borders.
Behind the growth is the mayor, Bert Steinmann, who was elected in 2010.
During a recent meeting with the mayor, his business administrator, Aaron T. Watson, and Fire Director Marc Strauss, they described the fire landscape in town.
While the 2015 fire, on Stowman Avenue, was a turning point, the overall issue is familiar in many areas of New Jersey – the decades long, gradual decline in volunteerism in firefighting.
Signs in front of volunteer firehouse always seem to beg for members to join. But once they do, they must undergo not only initial training, but regular and annual drills and refresher courses to remain active.
“They were almost impossible to keep up with,” Steinmann said of the training.
Ewing was long served by three volunteer fire companies in town, Prospect Heights, Pennington Road and West Trenton, stations 31, 32 and 33, respectively. Each had their own firehouse.
The town, like many others, did employ career firefighters starting in the late 1970s, but it was only one at each station, and they were referred to as “paid drivers,” whose job was to swiftly get the fire engine to the scene and meet up with volunteers.
By 2015, Ewing had grown to nine career firefighters, three at each station, to augment the volunteers. But the paid crews stopped working at 4 p.m. each day. The Stowman fire that year was at 5:30 p.m.
By 2016 and 2017, the town knew they had to act, after trying other moves, like an inventive program that paid volunteers $5 per call.
It didn’t lead to a boon of new firefighters.
“We had to change the culture of how we fight the fires,” Steinmann said.
That meant hiring them as full-time, career professionals.
The issue came down to a simple fact, Steinmann said. “If there’s a fire, a firefighter needs to show up.”
The town eventually took over the Pennington Road firehouse after officially declaring the company as an ineffective firefighting force via township council ordinance, passed in 2019.
The town hired Strauss that year too. He is a former police officer in Hunterdon County and served as Union Township’s public safety director prior to Ewing. He also was a volunteer fire chief in Hunterdon.
The town then purchased the building from the volunteer company in 2022 for $1.5 million. They renovated the building, adding new living