Multi-Alarm Commercial Fire in Mays Landing

The volunteerfire Companies of Laureldale, Cologne and Mays Landing were dispatched at 2131 hours on April 21, 2023, to Holly Street fora report of a structure fire. Almost immediately, Township Fire Official Chris Dibiase called dispatched and requested a second alarm and a tankertask force response. The fire involved the South Jersey Lumberman’s, a 50- x 300-foot metal-and-wood frame structure that ran deeply into the woodlands with several storage buildings well involved. The fire grew to multiple alarm status bringing firefighters from throughout Atlantic and surrounding counties. Machinery was brought in to pull the metal siding and roofs apart to fully extinguish the fire. One firefighterwas transported to the hospital forevaluation. Command was terminated at 0515 on April 22, with the fire underinvestigation by the New Jersey Division of Fire Safety Investigations Unit.

- Fire News photos by Ken Badger

How Did We Wind Up Here? 25 Years Later

Being that the New Jersey Emergency Preparedness Association will be celebrating 25 years of holding an annual conference, we would like to share with you a bit of our history.

In 1998, a handful of people from Atlantic County recognized a need within their communities and with municipal, county, state , and private sector participation, the first conference was held in 1999 as the Hurricane Preparedness Seminar. It was a single-day event to promote local issues to coastal area emergency managers. It then e xpanded over time to the New Jersey Hurricane Conference over two days.

The events of 9-11 changed the focus of emergency preparedness and the conference was rebranded as the New Jersey Emergency Preparedness Conference. This enabled NJEPAto present topics of a broader nature to the first responder community as well as private partners in emergency preparedness. The first program hosted approximately 200 people. In recent years, we have had as many as 1300 attendees and the Conference has grown to a five-day event including training and breakout sessions, many offering CEUs that are critical to the first responder community. In addition, every year for the past eight, we have Awarded the Kevin Tuno Emergency Manager of the Year Award to a deserving individual, along with countless Scholarships honoring several people who have served the Association and are no longer with us.

So, mark your calendars now for April 22-26, 2024, so that you can help us celebrate 25 years of providing training and networking opportunities to the first responder, health, and emergency preparedness communities in our region.