On Tuesday April 22nd 2025, our fire department was dispatched as part of the Ocean County Zone 1 Task Force, to respond down to the Waretown area of Ocean County to assist in structural protection at the Jones Road Forest Fire.

Our department was able to send a crew and a Chief Officer down to the fire where we were quickly put to work providing structural protection at the Lacey Industrial Park, as well as neighborhoods on the other side of Route 9 from the Industrial Park. We were able to successfully stop the fire from harming any of the homes in that area as the fire moved past there, and we were able to assist the other strike teams in that area to help limit damage that was done in the industrial park itself. Strike Teams were assembled from fire departments all over the state of NJ, and worked cooperatively to help evacuate neighborhoods and provide protection to homes and businesses as the fire moved past.

Members from our department were released to come home at 4:00am on April 23rd after a night of hard work. Great work by our members, the members of all the other departments, and the members of the NJ State Forest Fire Service, and other police, EMS agencies.