ANOTHER BUSY MONTH FOR THE WESTWOOD FIRE DEPARTMENT
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THIRTY-EIGHT CALLS DURING JUNE 2025
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Westwood Fire Chief Brian Kronewitter reports that the Westwood Fire Department was called
38 times for emergency assistance during the month of June 2025. Chief Kronewitter reports
that none of the calls turned out to be a serious fire in Westwood. However, Westwood fire
crews were called to assist the Woodcliff Lake fire department at the scene of a serious house
fire.
The 38 emergency calls, four training drills and five work/maintenance sessions
required over 360 hours of volunteer time.
The Westwood Fire Department was called out of town for eight incidents under the mutual aid
agreement. Westwood Firefighters assisted the River Vale Department on three occasions, the
Hillsdale, Washington Twp. and Emerson fire departments once each and to the Woodcliff Lake
house fire mentioned above. Westwood received aid on one occasion from River Vale fire dept.
Automatic fire alarms were received twenty-three times in June. Although no fires existed at
any of these incidents, a full fire department response is required. Firefighters check the entire
building to determine if an actual fire exists. Twelve times responses were caused by alarm
malfunctions where fire crews did not find any cause for the alarm activation. Five times the
alarms were set off by cooking. A variety of causes triggered the other alarms: contractors in
buildings, smoke from a theatrical smoke machine, dust from a vacuum, and a burglar alarm
mistaken for a fire alarm caused alarm activations and a fire department response.
Two Carbon Monoxide (CO) calls were received. Readers are reminded that CO is an odorless
and colorless gas caused by malfunctioning heating or cooking equipment. It can be lethal at
high levels. Again, each of these calls require a full fire department response. Fire crews check
the entire building with meters. No CO readings were found at these incidents. The scenes
were turned over to Public Service Gas company technicians for further investigation.
Two calls were for a smell of natural gas, the fire department responded and investigated,
finding that cleaning chemicals mixed together smell like natural gas and the other call no gas
was found.
Other calls for emergency assistance were a motor vehicle rollover. The occupants were out of
the vehicle prior to FD arrival but fire rescue crews ensured the area was safe and stood by
awaiting a tow truck. Balloons wrapped around high-tension wires on a residential street
caused arcing. At this call the arcing stopped and Public Service Electric was notified to
investigate further and make repairs. A small mulch fire at a townhouse complex was quickly
extinguished.