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Police are First Responders to Fires in NJ Borough

Although a New Jersey borough has been successful in cutting down on firefighters’ response to false alarms by mandating that Princeton Borough Police respond first to fire alarms, is this the right thing to do?

Passed unanimously in March by the Princeton Borough Council, the ordinance requires police to respond first to calls received from residences and businesses served by central monitoring stations. 

The change has come as relief to the three-station Princeton Fire Department, which Station 63 Deputy Chief Truestar Urian called, "one of the most active in the county."

Mr. Urian said the ordinance has prevented firefighters from rushing to "situations where no fire department response was really needed."

According 2006 statistics, nearly a third of calls from single- and two-family dwellings were false alarms. Still, that means more than 67 percent were real fires. By delaying response, damage caused by fire growth had the opportunity to increase exponentially.

One scenario that raised concerns before the ordinance passed was that the system would delay firefighters’ response to real fires. Another was a concern about sending police into harm’s way without the knowledge or gear to be able to provide help. "You have somebody responding to a possible five-alarmer that doesn't necessarily have any training at all," Mr. Urian said.
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