Ready to Respond

Unit Providing Vital Backup to Emergency Services

By Alesha Williams (Western Monmouth Reporter)

March 1, 2007

In a world where firefighters and police are considered a community’s protectors, it’s easy to forget that they need protection, too, says volunteer fireman and Board of Fire Commissioners Chairman Alan Spector.

“After 9/11, everybody became very aware of firefighter safety,” said Spector, who said that in addition to the obvious dangers of a fire, firefighters also risk heat stress, heat stroke, cardiac problems – and even frostbite in colder months.

You don’t want your men going home and having a heart attack because you didn’t take care of them,” he said.

It’s the reason Manalapan Fire District No. 1 Board of Fire Commissioners last year voted unanimously to launch its Rehabilitation Unit 1. The team of about 25 volunteers – who all have first responder or emergency medical technician training – provides support to firefighters and other responders during a crisis.

So far, the unit has been on hand at about a dozen emergencies, including the 5 ½-hour September standoff between a suicidal man and police in Manalapan and the fire that recently swept through the Fountains condominium complex in Sea Bright.

The unit’s members monitor emergency responder’s vital signs with equipment including blood-pressure cuffs, stethoscopes and a pulse oximetry machine that measures carbon monoxide and oxygen levels in the blood.

They also supply police and firefighters with radios, cooling vests, fans, food, liquids and oxygen and provide minor first-aid treatment, all out of the 20-foot trailer.

Gordons Corner Fore Co. President Rob DiTota, a unit member, said he believes the unit is the only one of its kind in Monmouth County. It mainly serves Manalapan and the surrounding area, but the team will respond “anywhere a fire marshal, OEM (Office of Emergency Management) coordinator or law enforcement agency wants us,” DiTota said.

“At the Sea Bright fire, we saw well over 50 guys that came into the unit,” DiTota said. “We replenished them with warm fluids, monitored their vital signs and sent them on their way again. This is not like an ambulance where you just take one patient to the hospital.”

The entire program cost about $70,000 to launch, officials say, and members say it’s been worth every penny.

“In the old days, guys would be sitting on the curb trying to cool down, trying to bring their heart rates down, bringing their own portable oxygen and first aid,” Assistant Chief Steve Burdick said. “They’re not overworking themselves now because they’re being watched, and everything is all in one central spot.”

“This is saving firefighters’ lives.”