The Jersey Journal (New Jersey)
NORTH HUDSON, N.J. — A fire engine will be taken out of service at one of four North Hudson firehouses on a revolving basis to cope with a staffing shortage officials say was triggered by a discrimination lawsuit.
The affected firehouses are located at 63rd Street and Kennedy Boulevard in North Bergen, 66th Street and Jackson Avenue in West New York, 16th Street and New York Avenue in Union City, and 26th and Jane streets in Weehawken, officials said.
The locations were chosen because they are within blocks of another firehouse, officials said.
The move comes in response to a lawsuit filed in 2007 by the NAACP, in which attorneys for the civil rights organization argue that North Hudson Regional Fire & Rescue’s policy of hiring only from the municipalities the agency serves, North Bergen, Union City, Weehawken, West New York and Guttenberg, discriminates against African-Americans since very few blacks live in those towns.
A judge issued an injunction against hiring on Feb. 18 when he allowed the suit to proceed.
As a result of the hiring freeze, officials said yesterday they don’t have enough firefighters to staff the truck they are taking out of service.
“This is a very reasonable policy . . . that does not lower or lessen fire safety in any way,” NHRF&R spokesman Paul Swibinski said.
“The same number of firefighters and engines will still show up at every first alarm,” Swibinski said. The only difference is that “one of our 14 firehouses will be manned by two firefighters instead of three,” he said.
Union officials believe residents should be concerned.
“Your fire protection services have been reduced,” read an ad by the NHRF&R Firefighters Association that ran in Friday’s Jersey Journal, adding, “You deserve a fire department that can safely and efficiently protect you and your family.”
NHRF&R officials said the residency requirement that’s being challenged in court is aimed at having the agency’s employees mirror North Hudson’s population, which is 75 to 80 percent Hispanic.
When NHRF&R was formed in 1998, Hispanics made up 10 percent of its ranks but that has since risen to 30 percent, Swibinski said. Forty percent of firefighter candidates on the current hiring list are Hispanic, he said.
Fewer than 4 percent of North Hudson residents are African-American, the lawsuit says. Of NHRF&R’s 323 employees, only two are African-American, the judge noted.
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