Due to budget cuts Tower Ladder 2 is placed out of service. Kearny is a small department with roughly 100 men. They have 4 Engines & 1 Ladder in service daily. Each manned by 3 FF's. So on a typical shift there are 15 FF's protecting about 40,000 people in an area about 9.1 square miles.
A little information on this fire. This was Engine 1 or Squad 2's first due box depending on who gets out the door faster. Both Squad 2 & Engine 1 were in South Kearny (Industrial Part of Kearny) doing foam training along with Engine 4 & the Foam Tender. This just left Engine 3 & Ladder 1 to cover the uptown area which is the residential part. Engine 3 was out on a washdown in Squad 2's first due area & Ladder 1 was changing out equipment from Tower 2. First due at the scene was Ladder 1 with 3 FF's & Engine 3 quickly followed arriving with 3 FF's including the driver. For about 10 minutes 6 FF's performed searches of the building, stretched supply & attack lines, & performed ventilation duties. I say 10 minutes because as one FF from Engine 1 said to my Dad..."We couldn't have been further from this fire." You can only imagine the physical & mental strain this put on the 6 FF's until the other rigs arrived.
I think I saw more police officers at this fire than firemen....
