GLOUCESTER COUNTY FIRE CHIEF’S & FIRE

OFFICER'S ASSOCIATION

NATIONAL PARK FIRE COMPANY

April 12, 2018

The meeting was called to order by Vice-President Ross at 1930 hours. The

group saluted the flag the invocation was given by Chaplain Tim Nessler.

Address of welcome was given by Chief Mark Gismondi

NEW MEMBERS:

Lieutenant John Merklein of National Park Fire Company

Al Giampola motion to accept John into the Association seconded by Bill

Beckett, motion passed.

Bill Beckett motion to suspend the normal order of business, seconded by

Mike White, motion passed.

The Gloucester County Foam Task Force then gave a power point

presentation of some of their equipment and what happens when the Task

Force is dispatched to an incident.

MINUTES OF PAST MEETING:

Rick Thomas motion that the minutes of the March meeting be approved as

emailed seconded by Kyle Adams, motion passed.

FREEHOLDER REPORT: Freeholder Chila was unable to attend the

meeting.

FIRE MARSHALS REPORT: The following is the report:

The following is my report for the actions taken by the Gloucester County

Fire Marshal’s Office for the period of March 01 to March 31, 2018 and the

totals for the year of 2018.

Inspections for the period: 192 Total for the Year: 438

Fire Safety Permits: 18 Total for the Year: 56

Fire Investigations for the period: 15 Total for the Year: 44

Fire Fatalities for the period: 0 Total for the Year: 1

Fire Scene Injuries for the period: 8 Total for the year: 13

Juvenile Fire setter actions for the period: 0 Total for the Year: 1

Training Sessions for the period: 3 Total for the Year: 6

Fire Extinguisher Inspections: 125 Total for the Year: 1077

Meetings/Lectures/Court for the period: 7 Total for the Year: 23

Fire Prevention Demo for the period: 0 Total for the Year: 0

Fit Testing for Agencies for Period: 19 Total for the Year: 73

Total Actions Taken by the Fire Marshal’s Office to date: 1718

Respectfully Submitted;

Edward J. Johnson

Chief County Fire Marshal

County of Gloucester

FIRE ACADEMY REPORT: Bob Hill reported that:

Gloucester County Firefighter’s & Fire Officer’s Association

FIRE ACADEMY DIRECTOR’S REPORT

REPORTING MONTH: April 2018

GLOUCESTER COUNTY FIRE ACADEMY

 FIREFIGHTER 1

 Spring semester underway

12 adults

10 juniors

Class entering its final phase of live fire skills drills, final skills

testing, and the May/Day & Survival drills.

State Exam results

Hazardous Materials Awareness 11 of 12 successfully passed. 1

student now sitting for third attempt.

Hazardous Materials Operations 8 of 12 successfully passed 4

students now sitting for third attempt.

General knowledge exam 8 of 12 successfully passed. 4 students now

sitting for their second attempt.

Graduation Thursday May 17, 2018 1900 at the Fine Arts Bldg.

Workplace Harassment / Discrimination / and Social Media problems

seem to be on the rise throughout the country. To reduce the

likelihood that your organization will be negatively affected and to

reduce personal and organizational liability, you are encouraged to

ensure that you have an effective policy, that you require training for

your supervisors and that you offer training to the rank and file

members.

GCFA has the programs and knowledge to assist in this effort.

FIRE ACADEMY GENERAL BUSINESS

 Registrations now being accepted for: Instructor Level 1 (Sunday) &

2, NFA Incident Safety Officer & Health and Safety Officer, CEVO

III (Saturday)

 Seats available for the special presentation of the NJ Fire Sprinkler

Advisory Board. This event is free and is scheduled for Tuesday June

19. Breakfast to be served. Reminder, this class has been approved

for .5 CEUs

 Enhancement continue to be made of our smokehouse. The RIC prop

has been build. Special Thanks to Chief Gartner, Lt. Steen, and Bill

Bates. We are now running a pilot program and a T-t-T. Once these

sessions are completed, we should be ready to offer a complete RIC

program. Please note, this prop will not be available for general use.

Rather, we will use the pop as part of comprehensive RIC training.

 Any chief who has a member attending Rowan College should take

notice that thanks to the Sklar family, a scholarship in the amount of

$500.00 is available to any member who is a first or second year

student at RCGC.

TRAINING & EDUCATION ADVISORY COUNCIL

Meeting next week

DIVISION OF FIRE SAFETY:

Spring course catalog and course registration is available at

KeanFireSafety.com

Applications now being accepted for New Jersey Weekend. June 9-

10. Applicants must have a FEMA number.

Respectfully submitted

Robert V Hill Sr.

Director II

G.C. EMERGENCY RESPONSE REPORT: Jason Spring reported that

the tone encoder is being worked on by the manufacturer, then will be

delivered and will be checked to make sure it will work with the CAD

system. They will be meeting with the radio committee then the tone list

will be distributed.

Jason stated that on March 21

the Center had experienced a loss of dispatch

capabilities.

The storm matrix has been updated, the center will now dispatch fumes as

interior or exterior fumes.

The Center still is dealing with glitches in the CAD system, they are

constantly working on the issues.

If you have a problem with the Center, Jason advised just like each fire

company has a chain of command, the center also has a chain of command,

please follow that chain of command when you have an issues with the

center. If there is an issue he asks that you do not take it out on the

dispatchers.

The center is aware that there is an ongoing problem with pagers, it seems to

be a problem with the tone encoder.

Jason also advised that March 7

& 8

were very busy day at the center with

handling over 2000 9-1-1 calls and dispatching over 864 Fire/EMS units.

March Numbers:

9-1-1 Calls: 11,867 Calls

Admin Calls: 10,689 Calls

9-1-1 Texts: 32

FIRE COORDINATION: Dennis Kappler advised that during the recent

fires in Clayton and Paulsboro that resources had been moved to cover

companies that were assisting with the fires.

NEPTUNE: Nothing to report

HAZ-MAT: Nothing to report

GLOUCESTER COUNTY EMS: No report

N. J. DIVISION OF FIRE SAFETY: No report

N.J. STATE FIREMEN’S RELEIF ASSOCIATION: Glenn Roemmich

reported that the Delegate & Alternate reports are due in to the Office by

May 1

. The 1

Quarter Financial report is due in by April 30

and the IRS

990 is due into the Office by May 15

The delegate, alternate and life member expenses for Convention will be the

same as last year. The County Caucus will be held on Thursday August 16

at Whitman Square and it will start at 19:00 hours. WE have 6 local

quarterly reports not in, 10 delegates list not in and 14 990’s not in as of this

afternoon.

N.J. FIREMENS HOME: Harry Strube stated that they are working on

next year’s budget. The Golf Outing is sold out and the men at the home are

looking forward to the warm weather. Tomorrow they will have their first

BBQ of the year.

N.J. EXEMPT ASSOCIATION: Glenn Roemmich reported that the 2018

Convention will be in Phillipsburg in August. The Memorial Service will be

in Old Bridge next Saturday April 21

at 11:00 am.

LAW & LEGISLATION: Frank Lambing reported that bill S-2017 which

was for members of PERS and PFRS could volunteer after they retired with

their employer was pocket vetoed by Gov. Christy. That now has to be

reintroduced and run its course through the legislature. Bill S-5 which

transfers management of PFRS to the Board of Trustees of PFRS is sitting

on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature.

BANQUET COMMITTEE: They are working on the 2019 banquet, more

information to come.

AWARDS COMMITTEE: Nothing at this time

AUDITING COMMITTEE: Nothing at this time

NOMINATING COMMITTEE: Rick Thomas reported that 2 people have

come forward to run for trustee they are Anthony Baldosaro and Bill

Beckett.

Bill Beckett withdrew his nomination.

The floor was opened for nominations, no further nominations came from

the floor.

Rick Thomas motion, seconded by Randall Gartner that the Secretary cast

the unanimous ballot for Anthony Baldosaro, motion passed. The Secretary

cast the ballot.

BY-LAW COMMITTEE: The committee is working on reviewing the By-

Laws.

BEAREAVMENT COMMITTEE: Rick Thomas advised that the

Committee had assisted Verga Fire Company, Paulsboro Fire Department

and the Elmer Fire Company in Salem County. He thanked Chief Farley

and Chief Zimm for their assistance during the funerals. He stated we still

need help during funerals where we assist.

SPECIAL COMMITTEES:

RADIO COMMITTEE: No report, but we will be voting in May on the

Ladder Resource Typing.

TECH RESCUE: No report

TENDER TASK FORCE:

Gloucester County Tender Taskforce

April 8, Drill Report

Location: Delsea Middle School Franklinville NJ

Start Time: 0900hrs

End Time: 1145hrs

Incident Commander: 43-101

Staging Location: Delsea High School Parking lot

Dumpsite Location: Delsea High school Parking Lot

Fill Site 1 Location: Williamstown Rd at Scotland run stream (between

Coles Mill Rd and Grant Ave)

Fill Site 2 Location Grant Ave at Scotland run stream (between

Williamstown Rd and Fries Mill Rd)

Fill Site 3location: Grant Ave at the bridge (between Fries Mill Rd and Rt

47)

Summary: Drill was dispatched on time all Tender Taskforce units were

present at the drill (Tender 43-12 did not participate in the supply loop as

they were committed to the ladder on dispatch). Tenders that would have

been dispatched to the job initially were sent straight to the middle school to

supply 43-12 until the dump site and LDH were established. Tender Task

force tenders that arrived were checked into staging, then put into the loop to

supply 43-12 until LDH was set up. Ladder 43-16 started flowing water at

0917hrs and continued to flow until 1025 hrs. During this period tenders

shuttled a total of 41.000 gallons of water.

LDH started to lay their 5” pipeline at 1000 hrs, at 1035 hrs engine 23-13

started drafting water from the dump tank set up. They continued to pump

until 1145 hrs. During this period they ran out of water 1 time for approx. 1-

2 minutes. From the start of the pond operations until the end we logged a

total of 115,600 gallons dumped into the ponds in a 70 minute time span. As

a note the tender loop was held at 6.5 a mile loop, there was a shorter loop

for this location but it was decided to maintain the larger loop for testing

purposes.

Issues:

1.As discussions before the drill pointed out, one problem we were going to

have with this drill was tenders pumping their water into 43-12 immediately

upon arrival would not allow draft engines enough time to get set up to fill

them before they were empty. This created a back up of 4-5 tenders sitting

empty before draft sires were set up. In a real word fire at this location 1 if

not more draft sites would have been established by a local engine prior to

the task force arriving.

2. The low level /jet siphon combination units did not provide adequate

transfer of water from the dump ponds to the draft pond. It is recommended

that standard jet siphons be used for this application.

3 It is recommended that one individual be assigned to each dump tank to

guide tenders back to dump and operate the dump valve.

If the valve can be operated from the cab great, if not it is not conductive to

timing if the operator, or passenger get out of the unit to operate the dump

valve.

All in all I think every unit performed quite well, and we met our goals of

gallons moved. I would like to Thank Franklinville Fire Company for

hosting this drill.

FOAM STRIKE TEAM: Jeff Pfeiffer advised that their drill be held on

Sunday April 29

in Mantua Township.

LARGE DIAMETER HOSE TASK FORCE: Brian Golle advised that

they had participated in the Tender Task Force drill, they only laid 400 ft. of

hose between engines. The task force will be holding a drill on their own.

TRAINING/FIRE ACADEMY COMMITTEE: No Report

ST. FLORIAN COMMITTEE: The Feast of St. Florian will be held on

Sunday May 6

in Woodbury at Christ Church. The blessing of the

apparatus will take place at 5:00 pm. The procession to the church will line

up at Station 5-1 and at 6 pm. and process down to the church for the

service.

LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE: No report

STAFFING ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE: They met last month, they

are sending out a questionnaire which they hope the Chief’s will fill out

truthfully and honestly. Their next meeting will take place on April 20

the Fire Marshal’s Office.

CORRESPONDENCE: None

PAYMENT of BILLS:

Officer Bond for $ 150.00

Chad Hitzelberger motion to pay the bill seconded by Anthony Baldosaro,

motion passed.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

GLOUCESTER COUNTY FIRE CHIEF’S

AND

FIRE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION

TREASURER’S REPORT

April 12, 2018

CHECKING ACCOUNT

REPORTING MONTH(S) March 2018

STARTING BALANCE …………..……….. $ 9,340.95

DEPOSIT ……………………..……….…… $ 2,456.00

EXPENSES……………………….…….…… $ 575.00

ENDING BALANCE………………….……. $ 11,221.95

RECEIPTS

Deposit … …………………………………… $ 956.00

Deposit ………………………………………..$ 600.00

Deposit ………………………………………..$ 150.00

Deposit ………………………………………..$ 450.00

TOTAL RECEIPTS……………………….…..$ 2,456.00

EXPENSES

Gateway Board of Ed …………….…………..$ 275.00

N.J. Firemen’s Home Golf Support .………….$ 300.00

EXPENSES…………………..…………………$ 575.00

CHECKING ACCOUNT BALANCE AS OF THIS DATE:$ 11,221.95

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED

ROBERT V HILL SR.

Hal Brown motion to accept the treasurer’s report seconded by

Archie Roemmich, motion passed.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS: A discussion was held on an address for all of

our correspondence and to use as a home address for the Association. The

issue will be worked on by the trustees.

NEW BUSINESS:

Frank Lambing motion that the name of our Association be changed to:

Gloucester County Fire Chief’s Association, seconded by Archie

Roemmich, motion passed.

CAMPTOWN: $ 62.00

GOOD & WELFARE OF THE ASSOCIATION: Nothing

PLACE OF NEXT MEETING: May 10

Star Cross in Franklin Twp. at

1930 hours.

Roll Call Taken

Jim Wigglesworth motion to adjourn seconded by Len Fisler

motion passed.

Meeting adjourned at 2034 hours.

Respectfully Submitted

Glenn Roemmich

Secretary