By Lawrence Ragonese
The Star-Ledger
GREYSTONE, N.J. — A 115-year run for the Greystone Park Fire Department has ended.
The seven remaining firefighters at the state psychiatric hospital in Parsippany have been told to pack up their belongings, including two pumper trucks, and abandon the original Greystone firehouse by tomorrow.
The five full-time and two part-time firefighters were told to set up shop inside the new Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital. Fire departments in neighboring towns, particularly Parsippany, Morris Township and Morris Plains, will now be first responders to actual blazes since Greystone will no longer have operating fire trucks.
Greystone's revamped fire department, which will include a new chief, will be stationed in an office in the new state hospital, said Ellen Lovejoy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services. The fire trucks will likely be mothballed as surplus vehicles, while two smaller fire vehicles, including a chief's car and utility truck containing some firefighting apparatus, will remain on site, she said.
The Greystone fire team will respond to "fire events" inside the hospital and be responsible for fire safety education, drills, safety inspections and maintaining fire equipment, including all fire extinguishers and the hospital's fire suppression system.
Mutual aid arrangements with local companies from Parsippany and neighboring towns, including Morris Township, Morris Plains, Denville and Randolph, are in place to deal with larger fires, state officials said.
Greystone's firehouse opened in 1894 with horse-drawn wagons. It served a massive state hospital that had thousands of patients and employees living in a self-contained city filled with dozens of structures on a sprawling campus that also had its own post office, farm and trolley stop.
A new 450,000-square-foot Greystone, with adjacent cottages, that houses nearly 500 patients opened last year on a hill overlooking the abandoned old campus, which is a virtual ghost town except for the fire department. State officials said the changing hospital necessitated a change in firefighting delivery.
The new hospital has a modern sprinkler system and fire extinguishers, plus "crash carts" on each floor with high-rise hose packs and breaking and prying tools.
"We wanted the firemen in this building to address fire issues in a proactive way ... training, fire safety inspections, rounds,'' Lovejoy said.
Greystone's fire team was a mostly glum crew yesterday, complying with orders to move and give up their fire trucks. The were especially unhappy the pumper trucks were to be parked for now in the circular drive outside the new hospital, unprotected from inclement weather.
"It's a joke what they're doing here. Fact is, I don't think they know what they're doing,'' said one firefighter who spoke privately for fear of being reprimanded by the hospital administration.
But state officials say they have properly planned for the hospital's changing firefighting needs, including briefing officials from local departments
The old Greystone firehouse, like the rest of the abandoned Greystone hospital, will be turned over to the state Treasury Department for possible sale or other uses.
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