Organized on June 28, 1951 and entered service on the same date at Fire Headquarters located at 29 North 5th Street at Arch street center city.  Rescue 1 relocated in 1961 to a new quarters, A converted factory building previously occupied by the Courier Post Newspaper at 3 North Third street At Arch Street.  On November 7, 1978 Rescue 1 relocated to Fire Headquarters, 2 North Third Street at Federal Street center city.  Rescue 1 remained at this location until 1993 when it again relocated to 619 Kaighns Avenue in the South Camden section of the city, this station was the former quarters of 8 Engine and 2 Truck.  At that time the Rescue occupied these quarters alone but did share the building with the departments Property Maintenance Unit.  But before long the company was once moved again on December 7, 1998 to it's present location in Liberty Station located around the corner at 1301 Broadway in the South Camden section of the city.

RESCUE COMPANY LOGO

The idea was conceived by FF Michael DiPascale for the RESCUE COMPANY 1 unit logo. This idea was brought to the Fortune 500 giant Campbell Soup Company and asked if we could use the Campbell Soup Kid as part of our logo. To our surprise Campbell Soup granted it's home town Fire Department with exclusive rights for use of the corporate trademark and also generously assisted in it's design and application to the rig. This was the first and only time Campbell Soup ever granted such rights to an outside agency, for this reason we are very proud and honored to have and display our logo were ever we go. 

_____________________________________________________________________________

FIRE & EMS

Camden City Fire Department

The Camden Fire Department is the first career fire service of New Jersey and among the oldest in the United States. Organized in 1869, the City of Camden was protected by a fully paid career force while such cities as Newark and Philadelphia were still served by volunteer fire fighters and in 1916 was among the very first in the nation to have a fleet of fully motorized fire apparatus while such cities as New York and Philadelphia still used fire horses.

The Mission Of The Department

As the City's first line of defense against a myriad of hazards which threaten the welfare for its citizens and the wealth of its property, the mission of the Fire Department is to preserve and enhance the quality of life in the City of Camden through the efficient delivery of services in the area of fire prevention; fire control; rescue operations; emergency medical support; and a mitigation of other special hazards affecting the public safety.

Organizational Objective Of The Department

To assist the community in the prevention of fire through public education and related fire safety services including property inspections and fire cause investigation.

The Organization

The Camden Fire Department is comprised of a number of divisions and units, a majority of which serve to support the operations of the Fire Control Force. As the principal division of the Department, the fire Control Force. As the principal division of the Department, the Fire control Force consists of eleven fire companies under the command of two Battalion Chiefs. The Battalion HQ's are under the command of the Chief of Operations.

The Motor Maintenance Unit is managed by Municipal Fleet management services among other municipal agencies, the work force at Motor Maintenance is comprised of civilian fire mechanics.

The Fire Training Academy is managed by a Battalion Chief Officer who is assisted by a Captain. The main goal of the Fire Academy is to see that all Fire Department personnel keep up on the required and specialized training, also responsible for recruitment and training of new personnel.

The Building Maintenance Department remains primarily responsible for the maintenance and repair of all FD buildings, utilities, and furnishings. This unit is comprised of two civilian personnel that are supervised by the Chief of Administration.

The Fire Control Force

The Department's staffing level is approximately 200 uniformed members and 10 civilian personnel. Some 95% of all uniformed personnel are assigned to field duty in the Fire Control Force while a remaining 5% serve in staff and fire prevention positions. Members of the Fire Control Force work a 24 hour duty tour based upon a 42 hour week. Uniformed personnel assigned to staff positions work four 10 hours days at 40 hours weekly; and all non-uniformed personnel are assigned a 35 hour work week at seven hours daily.

The Fire Control Force consists of eleven fire units among six Engine Companies; three Ladder companies; one Rescue Company; and one Squad Company (flying manpower squadron). This force is divided among two Battalion districts. The plant facilities of the Fire Department consist of seven municipal installations, six of which are fire stations and a motor maintenance facility. Their locations and assigned quarters are as follows:

Fire Station #1 N. 27th St. Engine Company 9 East Camden Ladder Company 3 2nd Battalion HQ

Fire Station 1115 Kaighns Ave. Engine Company 7 South Camden

Fire Station 901 N. 27th Street Engine Company 11 Cramer Hill

Fire Station 2500 Morgan Blvd. Engine Company 10 South Camden Ladder Company 2

Fire Station #4 N. 3rd Street Engine Company 1 Center City Ladder Company 1 Squad Company 6 Car 3 Tour Commander HQ, Fire Administration, Fire Academy ,Fire Prevention,Property Maintenance

Fire Station 1301 Broadway Engine Company 8 South Camden Rescue Company 1 1st Battalion HQ

Motor Maintenance 1140 Wright Ave. Same Maintenance South Camden

Operation

The Fire Department provides a myriad of emergency services, the principal functions of which are fire control and rescue operations. In its assigned mission to the community, virtually everything the Fire Department does concerns services of an emergent nature, all of which are classified among three distinct categories: Fires, Emergencies, and False Alarms.

Alarms classified as fires involve fire incidents of all types where combustion and /or ignition occur. All alarms classified as emergencies involve a wide array of incidents unrelated to fire, the most frequent of which includes all forms of rescue operations, hazardous material mishaps, medical emergencies, utility emergencies, construction emergencies, and public emergencies which are attended by the Fire Department. The remaining classification of false alarms includes all Fire Department responses that result from calls that are transmitted with malicious intent. Additionally, a small number of Fire Department responses are further classified as non-emergency in nature. These incidents, deemed public or community services most often involve Fire Department participation in support of community relations activities and public events of which the Department is credited for attendance.

The Camden Fire Department continues to service more fires and emergencies than all other New Jersey municipalities of comparable size without dedicated emergencies Medical Service. The Camden Fire Department extinguishes more fires annually than many of New Jersey's largest cities combined. While structural fires represent nearly 15% of the total fire duty, the vast majority of such structural incidents involve occupied rather than vacant buildings. This statistic remains surprisingly contrary to popular belief among both the public and the media, that Camden's principal fire problem stems from the City's thousands of abandoned buildings. Certainly the number of vacant properties contribute to the demand for services, but the City's quality of life, has long concerned the rate of fire incident in occupied buildings where the threat to life safety is greatest. And the Fire Administration believes that the cause remains long rooted in the pervasive poverty which continues to plaque the City of Camden.

Among deteriorated housing; deficient housekeeping and unsafe living practices, the poorest of the poor residing in depressed neighborhoods are routinely faced with choices among paying the electric bill, buying food, or purchasing heating oil. Occupied properties without electricity are subject to highly dangerous electrical hookups that steal power from adjoining buildings. Burning candles for interior lighting, dangerous use of volatile portable heating equipment in winter, and overcrowding in residential dwellings, are each manifest in the statistical data of the Fire Department that reflects the heavy demand for fire services. At an average 25.1 fires per one thousand residents, Camden leads the State of New Jersey in the per capita rate of fire incidents, nearly double the per capita rate of Newark, a municipality more than three times Camden's size.

The Fire control Force is comprised of four principal components, each of which are intended to function in specific areas of service. The Engine Company, Ladder Company, Rescue Company, and Squad Company each function in concert to provide effective fire suppression and fire control support in a prescribed and coordinated manner. Marine operations involving Fireboat services are also provided by the Engine Company. Not unlike the equivalent military components comprising Infantry, Artillery, and Special Force units which make up a greater organizational entity in the Armed Forces, so do the corresponding components of the Fire Department function to comprise the greater Fire Control Force.

The Engine Company

The Engine Company is the basic unit of the Fire Control Force and among other duties is primarily responsible for the control and extinguishing of fire. The Engine Company serves as the first responder to all reported fires and by nature, most reported emergencies. Engine companies comprise the greatest number of units in the force and because of their geographical dispersion throughout all regions of the City, they are almost always first to arrive at the scene of fires and emergencies, the hallmark of Engine Company operations are services at structural fires. The Engine functions as an integrated unit of four personnel with one supervisor and three fire fighters.

In addition to its principal mission for fire control, the Engine Company also serves a variety of other emergency service functions in support of the fire Control Force. At the scene of rescue operations, the local Engine Company functions as a rescue support unit for assisting the Rescue Company in extrication services. The Engine Company is also responsible for all Marine operations on the Delaware and Cooper Rivers that demand the services of the Fireboat for fire and rescue incidents occurring on or near these waterways.

The primary duty of the Company Officer is to coordinate and supervise the actions of the unit. The commanding officer of the first arriving Engine Company is responsible for assessing fire conditions; developing an initial strategy for action; and initiating appropriate tactics to mitigate the problem. Each fire fighter in the Engine Company is assigned to perform a prescribed function. The second fire fighter serves as the nozzle man, who with the assistance of the Captain, is responsible for advancing the hose line to the location of the fire and applying water for fire control. The third fire fighter is the hydrant man/backup man who is initially responsible for assisting the driver in connecting the pumper to a water source; and subsequently for supporting the nozzle man at the seat of the fire.

The Ladder Company

The Ladder Company operates in the essential function of fire control support. Without the services of the Ladder Company, the Engine Company could not effectively operate. The principal duties of the Ladder Company are both numerous and critical in nature:

The Rescue Company

Rescue services are defined as the manual extrication or evacuation of human life from all forms of physical entrapment. The Rescue Company possesses a wide range of specialized skills and equipment necessary for mitigating a myriad of life threatening emergencies related to such incidents. Not unlike Engine and Ladder Companies, the Rescue company also functions with a dedicated complement of personnel among one supervisor and four fire fighters. In its most frequent role, the Rescue Company responds to all structural fires citywide and is primarily responsible for searching the interior of burning buildings for trapped occupants who are lost and /or overcome by smoke, or whose escape routes have been cut off by spreading fire. While such activity at fires is rescue service in its most basic form, the search of burning buildings remains the simplest form of rescue operations compared to the highly technical and specialized functions associated with other forms of physical entrapment.

At industrial accidents where an operator's arm is caught in the steel rollers of a machine press. A workman slips into a hopper and his legs are caught in a vertical feed duct. A construction work falls and is impaled on steel reinforcing rods. A rigger's foot is pinned beneath the weight of a twenty ton lathe. A warehouseman is trapped under an over turned forklift. The Rescue Company excels at jacking, lifting, cutting and disassembling to separate victims from the clutches of steel and iron.

At domestic accidents where a child's foot is wedged in a sidewalk vent pipe. A juvenile's head is caught between the vertical bars of a wrought iron railing. A pedestrian falls from a train platform and is trapped under the carriage of a subway car. A person falls into an open elevator shaft and is trapped between the wall and superstructure. A juvenile is impaled upon the vertical spikes of an ornamental iron fence. Again jacking, lifting, cutting, spreading and rigging are the requisite skills of the Rescue Company.

At high angle elevated emergencies where a window washer hangs precariously from a collapsed scaffolding high above the street. A bridge tender is injured high atop the anchorage tower of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Where the cab of a tractor/trailer skids on the slippery road and plunges through a guard rail, the tractor hanging precariously over the side of an elevated bridge. Rigging and rappelling are the substance of high angle emergencies.

At confined space emergencies where workers are injured or overcome; both with and without the presence of toxic exposure or other environmental hazards. Such confined space areas include the interior of tanks; below grade manholes; utility conduits; tunnels and shafts; the structural collapse operations, persons incapacitated at emergency medical care prior to extrication. While beyond the reach of conventional ambulance personnel, members of the Rescue Company display some of their best skills as Emergency Medical Technicians.

At hazardous materials emergencies that involve a myriad of mishaps. A 275 gallon heating fuel tank in the basement of a residential dwelling ruptures a seam under the pressure of delivery and spills fuel oil throughout the basement floor of the building. A thirty thousand gallon rail tank car containing a flammable chemical springs a leak and spills products on an elevated track in a residential neighborhood. A refrigerated food processing plant leaks toxic ammonia. A supermarket leaks freon gas. A hazardous chemical reaction occurs in a school science lab. Rescue Company personnel are also certified Hazardous Materials Technicians trained and equipped to perform patching, plugging, dikeing and channeling of leaks, spills and containment of environmental hazards.

The role of tactical fire support is one of the most valuable and frequently used services of the Rescue Company at the scene of serious fires. Searching the interior of burning buildings for trapped or lost persons. Breaching walls and floors (concrete, steel, heavy timber) for Engine Companies to access fire. Cutting heavy metal barriers (steel security doors, shutters, rolling gates) for Ladder Company access. Opening heavy decking or roof construction for ventilation or examination. Such tactical fire support activities are also the hallmark of Rescue Company operations.

The aforementioned examples of Rescue Company services are just a few among virtually countless forms of public emergencies which challenge the capabilities of the Fire Control Force. The Rescue Company is the special forces service of the Fire Department. As in the military, the U. S. Army functions as a self contained organization capable of engaging and sustaining protracted operations. Within this sustained capability is the need for specialized support beyond the realm of standard operations. Such special forces units in the military comprise just a small segment of the total armed forces and possess specialized knowledge, skills and abilities which far exceed the standard capability of the conventional military force. It is of course neither feasible nor practical to extend such highly specialized training, equipment and capabilities to the masses within the total organization.

Likewise of the Fire Department, it is equally impossible to extend such training, certification and special equipment to all fire fighters among conventional Engine and Ladder Companies. The effective alternative is a special forces unit in the form of the Rescue Company where the principal focus is upon specialized capabilities inclusive of standard operations. Certifications in Hazardous Materials Technician; Emergency Medical Technician; High Angle Rescue Technicians, are among the many requisite qualifications for rescue company fire fighters. In cost vs. benefit concerns, the Rescue Company is perhaps the most valuable service in the Fire Department while its horizon for unlimited potential and service is only constrained by budget and technology.

The Squad Company

While having the outward appearance of a conventional Engine Company with pumper and standard compliment of hose and fittings, the Squad Company is neither an Engine nor a Ladder Company but rather an enhanced fire company with the capability of performing both Engine and Ladder services on an adaptive basis. Based on the time honored concept of flying manpower squadrons in the urban fire services, the Squad Company in the City of Camden carries a full complement of forcible entry tools; a roof saw; a Hurst extrication system; and all standard Engine company appliances. The Squad responds to every reported Working Fire citywide and its mission is a special one. To serve as the incident FAST Team (fire fighter assistance and search team), a rapid intervention force intended to rescue fire fighters that become trapped or disabled on the interior of burning buildings.

Command And Control

Everything that the Fire Control Force does is based upon fire behavior and it's effect as a natural force. Fire as a natural force and particularly in an uncontrolled state is a dynamic, almost living phenomenon with insidious physical properties. It's ability to propagate and spread in multiple directions with frightening speed is clearly manifest in Fire Department statistics that reflect countless incidents of injuries, deaths and substantive property loss in the City of Camden.

Adherence to the foregoing priorities and orchestration of fire attack activities remain the principal functions of Battalion Chief Officers who serve as Incident Commanders. Without the effective coordination of fire companies at the scene, the timely achievement of such tactical priorities and strategic objectives would not be possible.

There are a great many variables which affect the course and manner of the fire attack plan. The first objective for life safety is always paramount and so the sequence and positions for the placement of hose lines are dictated by this objective. Indeed in order to protect the lives of occupants exposed by fire, the Battalion Chief may direct Engine Companies to position hose lines at locations that may actually allow the fire to spread away from exposed victims until such occupants can be evacuated. Similarly, the tactical function of ventilation may differ strategically, based upon the intended purpose. VENTING FOR FIRE intends to localize the spread of fire and minimize property loss. VENTING FOR LIFE causes the fire to spread in a direction away from exposed victims and actually encourages the loss of additional property. Hence, the primary job of the Fire Department is not to put out fires Z but to save lives.

The sequence in which hose lines are advanced is key to efficient fire control depending upon the physical layout of the building and the extent and location of fire. Where the second and third hose lines are placed during the early stages of a serious fire will routinely mean the difference between a fire being confined to just one or two rooms, or spreading unabated to involve several adjoining buildings.

Where as many as five fire companies are operating at a One Alarm fire, the Battalion Chief is responsible for the efficient deployment of personnel and equipment. The supervisor of each fire company wholly depends upon the Incident Commander to coordinate safe and effective operations. Only the Battalion Chief at the scene has a clear understanding of the overall incident. This understanding allows him to effectively coordinate all operating among multiple fire companies, in a manner that will not oppose one another and result in undue injury to personnel.

At fires occurring in target hazard properties such as high rise buildings, two Battalion Chiefs respond on the First Alarm to supervise an inflated complement of fire companies and to coordinate the special problems associated with such complex operations. At the scene of high rise incidents, the first Battalion Chief maintains an Operations Post which serves as a forward command immediately below the fire floor where personnel and equipment are staged for action. The second Battalion Chief maintains a Command Post at or near the lobby entrance of the building and functions as the Incident Commander. This method of expanded command and control is also applied at other classified target hazards including below grade tunnel emergencies and shipboard fire incidents.

Also, the function of Incident Safety Officer remains vital to command and control. At the scene of Working Fires; hazmat emergencies; confined spaces operations; and similar type incidents which may pose a special hazard to fire fighters, an additional Battalion Chief is assigned to respond as the I.S.O.

The I.S.O. at the scene of operations principally concerns himself with emergent conditions that may pose a real or potential threat to the safety of fire personnel. The City of Camden, as an old urban center fraught with thousands of buildings in disrepair (both vacant and occupied) remains especially prone to rapid fire spread and potential collapse. Serious structural defects under heavy fire conditions can easily go unnoticed without dedicated observation. The I.S.O. roves the fire scene observing the condition of the building and the progress of the fire. This function effectively relieves the Incident Commander of such responsibility and allows the I.C. to exclusively focus upon fire control activities. The enforcement of safe fire ground practices among operating personnel for injury prevention; and the timely establishment of collapse zones relative to life safety and fire apparatus security, are among other essential functions of I.S.O. service.

The New Millennium

As the City of Camden enters the last year of the current century, its preparations for the new millennium will certainly challenge the Fire Department to even greater demands for protecting the urban community from such new perils as domestic terrorism; infrastructure emergencies; and of course, fire. The Department and it's Uniformed Force stand ready to meet this challenge despite increasing fiscal constraints and retrenchment in municipal government.

Home | History | Runs | Personnel | New Rig | Links | Guest Book | Web Album | Archives | Supreme Sacifice