County Executive Ed Day and Fire and Emergency Services Director Chris Kear are strongly urging and advising residents in the County of Rockland to always call 911 in an emergency. The announcement comes following a volunteer group called Matzilei Aish, which lacks the training and proper equipment to fight fires, encouraging residents to call them rather than 911.
“While I admire & support all of our firefighters, it is critical that this fire company stops encouraging residents to call the directly and not 911, knowing full well they do not have the proper training needed to fight fires effectively. At stake in failure to do so will eventually cost us lives,” said County Executive Ed Day.
For several months Rockland County Director of Fire & Emergency Services Director Chris Kear and County Executive Ed Day have sounded the alarm about the dangers this group poses to not only the Town of Ramapo but also to several state agencies including New York State Department of Labor Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH), New York State Attorney General, New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC), Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), in addition to Federal and State officials.
In addition to the safety risk, additional concerns include:
– No notification of utility companies for hazards observed.
– No notification of fire and building inspectors for code violations observed.
– No state fire reporting, resulting in reimbursement issues for homeowner insurance claims.
“This ‘rogue’ fire group continues to place the residents in jeopardy. This is a very dangerous situation in which inexperienced individuals with the lack of serious training will potentially result in serious injury or loss of life,” said Chris Kear, Fire & Emergency Services Director. “The fire departments in our county are well trained and have vast experience in a wide range of emergency related incidents. This should be left in the hands of our professional volunteer firefighters.”
While there are no laws that prevent the formation of a private fire company in New York, existing laws prohibit things such as interference with a firefighting operation and the County of Rockland encourages fire departments to document and report any instances of physical obstruction by this fire group.
“I applaud all the local municipalities that called out this group and urged residents to call 911 for emergencies as we need this addressed before we have a tragedy. Sending untrained personnel into a fire or emergency risks the lives of people and firefighters,” concluded County Executive Day.