Three Camden County, New Jersey fire stations close as volunteer cadre dwindles

The Winslow Township Fire Department in Camden County once had 140 volunteer firefighters in nine stations, including some fire stations dating back to the early 1900s.

But as a national shortage of volunteer firefighters has hit local communities over the past decade, the ranks of South Jersey township firefighters have been reduced to just 35.

Due to “extremely low” staffing, Winslow will close three of its four remaining volunteer fire stations by the end of the year and consolidate the department into one headquarters, Fire Chief Marc Rigberg announced on last month.

Fire stations in Albion, Elm and Tansboro will close, leaving Station 25-3 on Cedar Brook Road as the department's only location, the chief said.

“Often, we are spread too thin in terms of staffing and are unable to properly respond to calls for service with enough qualified firefighters in a timely manner,” Rigberg said in a statement. “It is desirable that by forming a large station, our volunteer firefighters will have an easier and more effective intervention capacity.”

The municipality has been sounding the alarm for several years regarding the decline in interest in the profession of volunteer firefighter.

In 2022, the Cedar Brook Volunteer Fire Company in Winslow Township temporarily ceased operations due to low staffing levels, despite increased call volume.

Winslow has tried several tactics to attract volunteers, including offering them a stipend of $60 to $90 for each six-hour volunteer period. The department also offered to cover training and equipment costs, provide a retirement investment plan and other incentives, the chief said.

However, budget constraints, as well as overworked staff, made it difficult to support multiple stations, officials said.

“We simply cannot support the number of stations and equipment at this point anymore,” Rigberg said.

Many volunteers juggle other responsibilities, including family, work, financial obligations and school. That makes it difficult for volunteers to meet requirements for training, incident response, equipment maintenance and other commitments, the chief said.

The declining number of volunteer firefighters is a problem throughout New Jersey, not just Camden County, Rigberg said.

The majority of firefighters in the United States are volunteers, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council, a nonprofit. In 2020, there were 676,900 volunteer firefighters in the United States, a decline of more than 9% from 2018, according to the association's statistics.

In a much smaller town in South Jersey – Upper Deerfield in Cumberland County – the municipality had to close one of its three volunteer fire companies last year due to rising tax rates and expenses necessary to keep it open.

Closing the 94-year-old station was the most cost-effective solution, Upper Deerfield council members said when voting on the plan. The move is expected to save the township about $100,000 a year, officials say.

The Winslow Township Fire Department covers nearly 60 square miles, including the small borough of Chesilhurst, which shares fire services with the township.

With a shortage of volunteers and a growing population threatening response times, several measures have been implemented to ensure the department operates efficiently, officials said.

The department added mutual aid from neighboring towns to its dispatch team and recently integrated paid career firefighters into its fire stations.

Consolidating the three volunteer positions should not impact response times, Rigberg said in his May 14 notice.

Nonetheless, changes will continue to be evaluated to ensure community needs are met, he added.

“We take the provision of fire and rescue services extremely seriously and our goal is to provide this service in the best, safest and most efficient way possible,” Rigberg said. “There is no doubt that these actions are difficult and not what we want.”

Please count on us to provide you with local information you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.