Borough Considers Lending Piece of Fire Dept Equipment to Woodcliff Lake

A long-standing request by the borough of Woodcliff Lake Fire Department to borrow a seldom-used piece of equipment owned by the Fort Lee Fire Department may finally meet with the borough’s approval.

The “mobile cascade system” is a fire department vehicle obtained by an Office of Emergency Management grant in 2004, according to Borough Administrator Peggy Thomas, and Woodcliff Lake would like to borrow the vehicle on a long-term basis.

“It’s basically an SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) fill station on wheels. It fills the tanks,” explained Fort Lee Fire Chief Jeff Silver to the mayor and council at the governing body’s most recent executive session. “It’s a mobile version of what we have in [Fire Station] No. 2, which is our SCBA fill station.”

Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, noting that he’s not for or against lending the piece of equipment to Woodcliff Lake, asked, “Why shouldn’t I be concerned about parting with that piece of apparatus for an extended period of time?”

Silver’s answer was simple.

“Lack of use,” he said.

In fact Silver said the vehicle has only been used “four to six times” since it was acquired with the OEM grant in 2004.

Silver explained that the request was originally made to former Fort Lee Fire Chief William Chiappane, and that it has been repeated “numerous times.” Silver said he “picked up the request” and decided to move forward with it.

“It’s in a bad position,” Silver said. “We have no place to keep it that’s easy and accessible. When we have an emergency, we have to hook it up and tow it to a scene.”

So why does the Woodcliff Lake Fire Department need it?

“They don’t have their own permanent fill station, and they’re sending it out to a vendor when they have to fill their own SCBA bottles,” Silver said. “So it’s costing them a lot of money to fill those bottles.”

According to the request, Woodcliff Lake would use it, maintain it for “minor maintenance” and insure it themselves.

“If needed in an emergency, they can deliver it or we could go pick it up and bring it back,” Silver said. “If our fill station went down, then they would give it back to us until we were finished. We recommend that we loan it to them. We don’t feel it’s necessary to sell it, because it is a backup if something happens to our fill station.”

But councilman Joseph Cervieri expressed some concerns, the first being that Woodcliff Lake is not part of Fort Lee’s mutual aid system. Cervieri said he would like the borough to look into whether there is a fire department that the borough’s mutual aid system that might need the use of such equipment.

“There are other mobile cascade systems close enough to us even if that couldn’t get down here quick enough,” Silver said. “There are ones stationed in Hackensack and a couple other surrounding towns that if we actually needed a mobile system we could get it.”

Deferring to Silver, Sokolich said he would support the agreement with Woodcliff Lake under certain conditions.

“As long as we’ve confirmed that we do not have an immediate for it—we don’t use it on a regular basis,” Sokolich said. “We have this apparatus on site. They’re insuring it, and I would also insist on a waiver for liability.”

Cervieri added that there’s something else he’d like to see in writing before he’s willing to support the move.

“When I heard the chief say they need to take care of ‘minor repairs’ … they need to take care of all repairs,” Cervieri said. “I don’t want them coming back to us saying, ‘You know what? Here’s your pieces, now it’s a major repair.’ They’re going to give it back to us in the same or better condition as we have, because it’s only been used six times in five years.”