By Nawal Qarooni
The Star-Ledger
Copyright 2007 Newark Morning Ledger Co.
All Rights Reserved
NEWARK, N.J. — It was one of the hottest days of the summer, and the forecast predicted no break in the heat wave.
So Rebecca Lauer, captain of the Highland Park First Aid Squad, was distressed when one of their three emergency vehicles began billowing smoke from its hood a few weeks ago. With another ambulance in the shop from an accident, the engine troubles left the volunteer force with just an old van from 1991.
“Unfortunately, you can never tell if something will go wrong,” Lauer said. “With the potential for a busy weekend with the hot weekend weather, running through a weekend without a backup didn’t seem viable.”
Lauer and Marc Robinson, the volunteer squad’s president, tried to keep their cool. Robinson arranged to have a flatbed haul the smoking vehicle away while Lauer called nearby emergency management offices.
By 5 p.m. on that Friday afternoon, Lauer worried nobody would respond to the voicemails she was leaving. It was slowly creeping toward sundown, when Lauer - who observes the Jewish Sabbath - would have to stop working.
“People are shut down on the weekends, especially over the summer,” said Lauer, who is one of 44 active volunteers on the force. “I was making connections to every squad we could think of.”
Finally, Lauer got some good news from the East Brunswick Rescue Squad’s Captain Fred Beisser.
“He was wonderful. He said he had a vehicle to lend us through the weekend,” Lauer said. “He made it so convenient for us, even more than necessary.”
Beisser quickly made arrangements for the Highland Park squad to use one of East Brunswick’s four emergency vehicles until Monday morning, when the faulty ambulance was scheduled to be fixed. Though the East Brunswick volunteer unit is often inundated with calls - reaching about 5,000 per year - Beisser made the sacrifice.
That weekend, Highland Park fielded multiple calls at the same time, making it necessary to use two emergency vehicles. If they didn’t have the loaner from East Brunswick, they would have had to call out for mutual aid - an agreement between neighboring towns that when one town’s resources are overtaxed, the call moves to the next open town, Lauer said.
“It’s not always easy because on a Saturday, and on the weekend, we may need all four rigs,” Beisser said. “But we’re trying to be neighborly.”
After a bad fire in 1999, Beisser said several nearby rescue squads helped the East Brunswick squad by lending their ambulances.
“We’ve been helped quite a bit in the past, so we try to do the same,” Beisser said, adding that they’ve loaned vehicles to South River as well. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
Robinson, who has served on the Highland Park squad for about eight years, said he was grateful.
“It was an unexpected surprise and we were thankful for it,” Robinson said.
Lauer added, “It’s nice to know when the people helping others help each other as well.”