Woodbridge Seeks To Close Keasbey Firehouse

WOODBRIDGE, NJ — Woodbridge Township would like to close the Keasbey fire house.

This is Woodbridge Fire District 4, located on Smith Street in the Keasbey section of town.

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If the plan goes through, the Keasbey firehouse will be torn down and a new warehouse will be built where it stands.

Woodbridge Township held a special council meeting Tuesday night to discuss the town's plans to close the Keasbey firehouse. The meeting lasted 31 minutes, and you can watch it here:

The Keasbey fire district is trying to fight this plan. The firehouse hired its own lawyer and he spoke Tuesday night, and urged the Woodbridge town council not to close the house.

If it closes, Fords fire company (Fire District 7) would take over responding to fire and 911 calls in the Keasbey area. This will essentially be a merger between the Fords and Keasbey fire companies, said the town. All the current Keasbey firefighters will be able to join Fords.

They town of Woodbridge said closing the house will save the town tax dollars.

At Tuesday night's meeting, a planner hired by Woodbridge Twp. gave a presentation of a study done on the current state of the Keasbey firehouse.

All of New Jersey and America is seeing a decline in volunteerism, but this is especially true at the Keasbey fire house, he said. Membership at the Keasbey firehouse is very low. That firehouse had to supplement with paid firefighters in recent years.

The firehouse has also witnessed a reduced call volume in recent years. They respond to about 10-12 calls per month, the fewest number of fire calls in Woodbridge Twp.

The Keasbey firehouse has also terminated many of its shared-services agreements with other firehouses.

However, the lawyer hired by the Keasbey firehouse said many of the points the planner made are factually inaccurate.

"It's clear the council is rushing without ever consulting with anyone at the fire district, without ever discussing (other options). That leaves us all to wonder why. What's the rush?" asked the lawyer.

"The Township requested a review only of Fire District Number Four," continued the lawyer. "If the Township were sincerely interested in evaluating the performance of firefighting services throughout Woodbridge, it would have evaluated firefighting services throughout Woodbridge, rather than selecting one single fire district to put under the microscope."

The Keasbey fire house has been in service since 1908.

"Before this council rushes to destroy that tradition, I believe the Council owes the public and the firefighters an explanation as to why that tradition has to end," summed up the lawyer.

John Mannon, chief of the Keasbey fire district, also urged the Council not to close his firehouse. He recalled how Keasbey firefighters responded to as far as Brooklyn during 9/11.

"We are the last vestige of the once-thriving community that one was Keasbey," he said.

The Woodbridge town Council has not made any final decisions yet on whether it will close the Keasbey firehouse. The proposal was scheduled for another public meeting at 6 p.m. August 12, in Council chambers at town hall.