River Vale
Fire Department
Professionally Staffed by Volunteers since August 13, 1923
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Be part of the TRADITION.
Be part of the COMMUNITY.
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RIVER VALE FIRE DEPARTMENT.
RECENT ALARMS
2021 Monthly
Call Totals
January: 25
February: 19
March: 21
April: 17
May: 24
June: 26
July: 30
August: 37
September: 29
October: 17
November: 8
December: -
Total: 245
November 3rd
Elevator Rescue | Westwood Avenue | 11:23 AM
Fire Alarm | Piermont Avenue South | 3:17 PM
Smoke Condition | Piermont Avenue South | 3:29 PM
November 5th
Odor of Gas | Westwood Avenue | 3:07 PM
November 6th
Fire Alarm | Colonial Road | 10:14 AM
November 7th
Odor of Gas | Antrim Road and Cobh Road | 10:01 AM
November 8th
Fire Alarm | Rivervale Road | 10:36 AM
Carbon Monoxide Alarm | Alden Court | 6:00 PM
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What happens when I call the Fire Department?
In the event you experience an emergency that requires fire department intervention (Fire Alarm, CO Alarm, Structure Fire), you should immediately evacuate your home and call 9-1-1 from a safe distance. You will be connected with one of our dispatchers at Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch, from there, the dispatcher will ask you a series of questions pertaining to your emergency until they receive enough information to dispatch. Upon dispatch, all RV Firefighters receive the message via pagers and an app called eDispatches. Your address, type of emergency and any pertinent information will be provided to us. An exmaple of a dispatch message would be as follows, "Central Dispatch to the River Vale Fire Department, respond to 123 Main Street for the reported house fire, caller confirms seeing flames in the home, all occupants are evacuated, cross streets will be First and Second Streets."
Why do so many fire trucks show up when I call the Fire Department?
The answer to this is simple, we come prepared! With 5 apparatus and close to 60 members, we take every opportunity to put as many trucks on the road as possible for every emergency.
Why does the Fire Department come when I call PSE&G?
When you call PSE&G to report a utility emergency, it is within their protocol to dispatch the Fire Department. They do this to protect you and their technicians when they arrive. We often times stablilize the situation while a PSE&G technician is en route.
Why does the Fire Siren go off late at night?
There are two fire sirens throughout town; one right behind the North Firehouse and the other at the corner of Rivervale Road and Montview Place. The fire siren is a secondary means of alerting our firefighters to an emergency. The siren will activate for any emergency between the hours of 7AM-10PM. However, it is within our Operating Procedures to have our dispatchers activate the siren for structure fires anytime of day.
What do you do when my fire alarm goes off?
When we arrive to your house/business, we begin a thorough investigation to figure out what caused your alarm to activate. Each firefighter enters the building equipped with tools and the officers carries a thermal imaging camera to see if there is fire hiding behind the walls. The officer in charge will send some firefighters to certain parts of the building to find the activated detector. Once it's found, the crew will take it down and check the expiration date and clean it out, sometimes alarms are activated by dust or spider webs or expired detectors. Regardless, other firefighters will check to see if there's smoke or fire. If you have an alarm system, we will reset it for you. If we see anything wrong, we will advise you to get it corrected.
What is a runaway boiler?
An “Overheated Boiler” condition is created when a heating unit reaches an exceedingly high temperature and pressure, and will not shut off. This condition, also commonly referred to as a “Runaway Boiler”, is considered unsafe and very hazardous to both emergency responders and building occupants. This condition is primarily caused by coincidental failures of redundant safety controls that maintain safe temperature, pressure, gas supply, and water supply.
Why do I see fire trucks from other towns responding into River Vale?
There are some calls that simply require extra help. One example would be for a call at one of the schools in town. If we are dispatched to any kind of emergency at any of the schools when it is occupied, we receive Automatic Mutual Aid from Old Tappan. If we are dispatched to a structure fire and it is confirmed, the incident commander will ask for a working fire assignment, which brings several towns to the scene. For example, a first alarm working fire assignment for a fire South of Piermont Avenue would bring to the scene, River Vale fire units, a Hillsdale Ladder Truck, an Old Tappan Engine and a Westwood Rescue Truck.