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Monday, September 21, 2009

Sunday fire forces family to flee their home




Early afternoon fire was two doors from Mayor's home.


A fire two doors away from the home of Plainfield Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs forced a family to flee for safety early Sunday afternoon.

Plainfield's Fire Division responded within minutes and had the fire under control by the time I arrived, seven minutes after receiving a call from intrepid reader/reporter/cookie maven BC, who lives in the neighborhood.

Another nearby resident said she spotted flames shooting out of the basement window while out in her yard.

In this tight-knit neighborhood, several families from the block had offered the victims shelter without waiting for disaster-relief officials to arrive.

Units from South Plainfield, North Plainfield, Scotch Plains and Westfield also responded to the blaze.




Plainfield and four other fire departments responded.






-- Dan Damon

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Other volunteer towns responded? Plainfield should cover all the other towns and charge for the service so the taxpayers get some relief !!! And the Volunteers get some rest !

BJ Fleming said...

To Anonymous,

You should realize that mutual aid is utilized to support a fire division due to it's limited manpower. The fire division currently has 12 vacancies with another 17 personnel eligible for retirement. Like Dan said, we were there in minutes. Be careful what you wish for, as volunteers can take up to 15 minutes to respond with whatever number of members who happen to be available.

BJ Fleming said...

To Anonymous,

You should realize that mutual aid is utilized to support a fire division due to it's limited manpower. The fire division currently has 12 vacancies with another 17 personnel eligible for retirement. Like Dan said, we were there in minutes. Be careful what you wish for, as volunteers can take up to 15 minutes to respond with whatever number of members who happen to be available.