General information about the Metuchen Fire Department can be found here.

Among other changes, Metuchen will now allow the two fire companies that comprise its fire department to merge to form one company, if they so choose.

“This ordinance is a long time coming and a day many people thought we would never see,” said councilman Peter Cammarano at the Sept. 8 Borough Council meeting. “Recognizing the cooperation of the chief, deputy chief and all the other firefighters, it is good for the department and the borough, and I vote yes.”

The ordinance was approved unanimously by the Borough Council.

Doesn’t Metuchen have just one firehouse?   What do you mean by two fire companies?

Many people driving by Metuchen’s lone firehouse across the street from Borough Hall don’t know that it actually consists of two different fire companies – the Eagle, Hook, and Ladder Company and the Washington Hose Company.

“Most people don’t understand the difference between a department and company,” said Metuchen Fire Department Deputy Chief Robert Donnan at the Sept. 8 meeting. “They intermingle the two terms.”

The new ordinance allows Washington Hose and Eagle, Hook, and Ladder to merge to form one united company, under the name of the Metuchen Volunteer Fire Company. No decision was announced at the council meeting as to if and when this would take place, however.

Eagle, Hook, and Ladder was Metuchen’s first fire company and was established in 1882. The Washington Hose Company came later, in 1897. But it wasn’t until 1927 that Metuchen established a formal borough fire department and directly managed and regulated the two companies.

The two companies were housed in separate firehouses until 1953, when they came together under one Middlesex Avenue roof in what was formerly the borough garage. This firehouse remains the fire department’s home to this day.

Currently, the two fire companies function as nonprofit entities, and a merged single fire company would retain that status.

Among other changes, the new ordinance also allows for the election of officers from either of the two companies, so there is not an assignment of officers to one or the other, according to Mayor Thomas Vahalla. In addition, the number of active members will be capped at 26 for each company, (52 total in the event of a merger), and the fire department chief and deputy chief will now have to reside within a three-mile radius of the firehouse.

A purpose statement that accompanied the new ordinance said that the proposed changes “improve departmental operations and cohesiveness” and “improve the fire officer selection process.”