Great Adventure's Fire Department Disbanded

[29yrswithaGApass]

Six Flags Fire Department Disbanded.

 

By DAVE WEISKOPF Senior Correspondent

 

1st Responder Network

 

"On September, 21, 2010, the management of Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson Township, N.J. announced it would be disbanding its fire department. IAFF Local I-73, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Professional Fire Fighters of New Jersey believe that disbanding the fire department at Six Flags Great Adventure will diminish current levels of public safety service at the amusement park which receives 2,800,000 visitors annually, with a average daily attendance of 30,000 people.

 

Disbanding the fire department at Great adventure will result in delayed responses to emergencies where people need help. It will take longer for outside fire and emergency units to respond to Great Adventure and arrive at emergencies. Fire and emergency units from outside should continue to support Great Adventure's own fire department, not replace it.

 

The International Association of Fire Fighters and the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey are working to support Local I-73 efforts to convey this important message to management.

 

Please call Angel Aristone at 732-928-2000 Ext. 2832. Tell management at Six Flags Great Adventure that disbanding their fire department is a mistake that will hurt public safety.

 

Further reports will follow as developments occur. Contact Local I-73 President Matthew Jordan at 732-703-2421 or IAFF First District Field Services Representative Keith Kemery at 609-820-2675 for further information."

 

I don't think this is the best place to be cutting costs.

[pashacar]

$$$ > Lives

 

Hmm....

[The Master]

That is f$%*#@ stupid. They are going way too far with cutbacks now.

Edited September 30, 2010 by The Master

[Yoshi]

It's bad enough to cut hours, operating days, shows etc. but when safety is involved that is too far!

[Railer]

I hope they have a fire during the off-season (so no one is hurt), and they learn from their mistake.

[Dan]

I hope they have a fire during the off-season (so no one is hurt), and they learn from their mistake.

 

 

Oh thats good.

[Railer]

Unfourtunately, something like that is usually what it takes. Very pissed at the park today that's all.

[warnerleroy]

In the words to Stewi Griffin."are your parents brother and sister?" whats next? getting rid of restraints on rides cuz they cost to much?!?!?! Getting rid of first aid?!?!?!?

 

lets see...

first we lost flats, then employees, then TOtT, then the fire department? I wish i could say something but I'm speechless! I know you dont like when it comes up in the forum, but what if God forbid another Haunted Castle type senario happens?!?!?!?!

 

Also, lets hope a fire DOESNT happen because they wont even repair the damage let alone bring back the fire department!

[Thunderbolt]

Perhaps Six Flags could move restraint checking to an honor system. Think of all the money the company could save eliminating those minimum wage seasonal employees! Heck, why not hock Safari animals on eBay and charge people per incident for security intervention? Even RedZone didn't dare eliminate public safety positions. If I were the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Professional Fire Fighters of New Jersey, I would be buying lots of local airtime. I wonder when The Asbury Park Press will pick up on this story? Any major incidents, and you can bet Great Adventure will take another decade to recover. If it can at all.

 

Not a good day to be Angel Aristone I'd imagine.

[The Master]

I think this is a clear sign that SF corp is going down and pulling GADV down with it.

Edited October 1, 2010 by The Master

[Yoshi]

Perhaps Six Flags could move restraint checking to an honor system. Think of all the money the company could save eliminating those minimum wage seasonal employees!

 

If they did that, they could even take it further and add some of those self operated rides that they have in Europe where there is no ride op. Like this: http://rcdb.com/2266.htm?p=0

[warnerleroy]

call the number on the article, thats all we can do now...

[lightnin78nic]

I'm shocked,safety always should come first!

[warnerleroy]

I'm shocked,safety always should come first!

 

 

In Reid-Anderson's Wall Street mind, MONEY comes first

[gafreak]

What a bunch of Jacka$$ moves this guy is making. Hasn't the SFFD been there since day 1? Well we can change the GA in 2024 topic to what we be built on GA's property in 2024, because there's not going to be an amusment park there anymore.

[warnerleroy]

In Reid-Anderson's Wall Street mind, MONEY comes first

There is a cough cough FAINT cough cough resemblence....

 

 

Edited October 4, 2010 by warnerleroy

[acq10uaz]

Faint? Lol they look exactly alike!

[warnerleroy]

Faint? Lol they look exactly alike!

 

The only difference is one only ACTS like a wall street exec. who screws companies!

Edited October 4, 2010 by warnerleroy

[bvfcfirefighter]

I wish that this were just a sick joke. I don't think I'll feel safe not knowing there's a FD there or that the FD has to respond from somewhere TO Great Adventure. I really do hope they learn a hard and valuable lesson either during fright fest or the off-season of how much better it is to have an FD there ready to go then to have one responding from somewhere else.

[warnerleroy]

No, we don't want an accident to happen! Even though everybody says "do it when nobody's around", theres is still a chance somebody can get hurt and we ESPECIALLY don't want that to happen! As soon as somebody tells that dumba$$ reid-anderson a little story about the haunted castle, we should get our fire departent back. And if we don't I will personally drive to SF headquarters and tell Reid-Anderson things I won't say here because this is a family site

[29yrswithaGApass]

Source: Tri-Town News

 

Six Flags fire dept. disbanded

 

Official from Fire District No. 2 says Jackson’s Cassville unit will respond if necessary

BY DAVE BENJAMIN

Staff Writer

 

Management at Six Flags Great Adventure, Route 537, Jackson, recently announced it would disband the theme park’s fire department, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 73 at Great Adventure and the Professional Firefighters of New Jersey.

 

“They don’t want us to be a union firehouse and there are no more fire trucks,” said Matt Jordan, president of Local 73. “There is no fire department at Great Adventure anymore. They laid off everybody from the union, so there can be no more union.”

 

He said there are only two part-time employees right now from the former fire department and said they are working as safety technicians and not as firefighters.

 

Jordan said that although there are several unions in the theme park, such as carpenters and iron workers, his union was the smallest with only 10 full-time and part-time firefighters and “it was easier for them to get rid of us. We were the only union shop that was affected.”

 

In a statement, the IAFF said it believes disbanding the fire department at Great Adventure will diminish current levels of public safety service at the amusement park.

 

The IAFF claims that disbanding the fire department will result in delayed responses to emergencies and that it will take longer for outside fire and emergency units to respond to Great Adventure.

 

The IAFF and the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey said they are working to support Local 73’s efforts to convey that message to park management.

 

Angel Aristone, director of communications at Great Adventure, said the elimination of the theme park’s fire department was a staff reorganization.

 

Aristone said management is restructuring the department, but will continue to employ trained and certified safety team members and as in the past, per standard operating procedure, Six Flags safety personnel will continue to respond as necessary with support from the Cassville Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 of Jackson, when warranted.

 

Aristone said Six Flags is a public company and said executives routinely evaluate their operations to ensure they are operating as effectively and efficiently as possible.

 

Aristone said safety supervisors and technicians will be non-union personnel, but said they will still have the same safety qualifications and certifications as union employees. The program is still being reviewed, Aristone said. Aristone said park executivesmade some staffing modifications to the current program. The plan is for trained fire team members to remain on staff and report to the Six Flags Safety Division throughout the park’s operating season.

 

Great Adventure is currently open weekends through Oct. 31

 

“Because our safety team members are required to perform both union and nonunion duties, they will no longer be part of the union, but will continue to uphold the same safety qualifications and certifications,” said Aristone. “We also still have certified firefighters on property during operating hours.”

 

Aristone said the theme park also has first aid personnel who are part of the safety division, and security personnel who will continue to work closely with law enforcement officials at the local, state and federal levels.

 

Jackson Fire District No. 2 acting Fire Official Wallace W. Jamison said that at meetings the fire district had with local union members, they tried to confirm if Great Adventure had a firefighting force.

 

He said indications are that the theme park is not in the business of firefighting anymore.

 

Jamison said he was told the responsibility rests solely on the Cassville fire company now.

 

“They have no fire brigade [at Great Adventure] any longer and no fire department,” he said. “All they have is a security division. In the past, there was an agreement that there would be a fire brigade on location. They would be the initial or first responders because a lot of times they would have alarms, and they would be the initial response into the area.

 

“Whether there is a fire brigade or not, Cassville [and Fire District No. 2] is the only firefighting unit for that area,” said Jamison.

 

Jamison said it is a 14-mile round trip from the Cassville fire company’s main station to Great Adventure and a 22-mile round trip from the fire company’s Mill Road station to the theme park.

 

“As of last week when I spoke with Ed Zacker [safety risk manager at Great Adventure], he said Great Adventure no longer had a fire department,” Jamison reported. “There is no fire brigade over there, and anything that goes on in the park is dispatched as a fire alarm and has to be reported through 911 and is dispatched accordingly.”

 

 

[29yrswithaGApass]

Source: Asbury Park Press

 

Six Flags Great Adventure eliminates its fire department

By KEITH RUSCITTI • STAFF WRITER • October 5, 2010

 

JACKSON — Since the Great Adventure theme park was built in 1973, it has had its own fully staffed fire department to patrol the grounds.

 

That association changed two weeks ago, when Six Flags park management disbanded its fire department as part of a restructuring plan. The seven firefighters — two of whom were full time — were fired, and replaced.

 

Now the park's revised safety division will conduct the duties formerly performed by the fire department.

 

Meanwhile, local firefighters are crying foul about the development, claiming the restructuring is nothing more than a move to rid the last vestiges of the firemen's union.

 

"All they're doing is busting the union," said Matthew Jordan, one of the full-time firefighters fired by the park on Sept. 21.

 

Jordan, a Jackson resident, is also president of the local chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents the three full-time firefighters who worked at the park.

 

The full-time firefighters earned between $30,000 and $55,000 each year. Part-timers, who are professional firefighters with other departments, earned $10 an hour.

 

In the summer, one full-time fireman was fired by the park, thus dwindling the full-time ranks down to two, and disbanding the union, according to Jordan.

 

"You need three or more people to have a union," he said.

 

In 1973, when the park opened, there were 18 full-time firemen on staff, Jordan said.

 

The union has filed a grievance against Six Flags with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the local union. IAFF represents more than 60 local unions in the state, and includes more than 3,500 firefighters.

 

The park's remodeled safety division now will have 35 employees, none of whom are union members, said Angel Aristone, spokeswoman for Great Adventure. Members of the safety division are certified emergency responders and firefighters, Aristone said.

 

"Since we operate only eight months out of the year, a seasonal operation will be more efficient," Aristone said. "We'll continue to have the same level of fire protection coverage during our operating season as we've had in the past."

 

That will be unlikely, said Tom Scannell, who was a fireman at the park for 15 years before being fired in September.

 

"We had a very unique balance we had to maintain for 37 years," said Scannell, who has 41 years experience as a firefighter. "When you work at Great Adventure, it's like a normal fire department, plus. Because not only do you have to meet local and state codes, you have to meet the park regulations as well."

 

The in-house department conducted all of the park inspections, including all 62 hydrants in the park, the sprinklers and all of the buildings, Scannell said.

 

"We still have certified firefighters on property that are qualified to continue to respond," Aristone said. "They are just now called safety supervisors and safety technicians."

 

Yet, the Cassville Fire Company in Jackson will be responsible to provide primary fire coverage for the park, Jordan said.

 

"This will tax all of the other departments in town," Jordan said. "If there is a call, three departments normally respond. Jackson is 101 square miles."

 

The elimination of the fire department is the latest of restructuring moves for the theme park.

 

Earlier this year, Six Flags, the parent company of Great Adventure, emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

 

In August, John Fitzgerald was named the new president of Great Adventure. Also, James Reid-Anderson, was hired as president, chairman and chief executive officer of Six Flags Inc., the park's parent company

 

Fitzgerald declined to comment for this story.

 

 

Wow, 18 full-time firefighters in 1973! That is more than most towns!

[29yrswithaGApass]

I guess my Great Adventure Fire Department patch just became a collectors item!

 

[mrceagle]

I can see this move on a business standpoint. Though I think it 's a bit wrong given the distance of the nearest fire station. This could hurt then if there was ever a big problem.

[Railer]

It sure did!!! No "Trading Post" for that item now.