BORDENTOWN TOWNSHIP — The township's Fire District No. 2 will double its full-time staff on Aug. 2, becoming the only fire district in Burlington County to provide 24-hour, 7-day-a-week service to its residents.
   "We will be the first fire company in Burlington County to have a full career personnel," said Robert Carr Jr., a paid firefighter for the district.
   Currently, the district has six full-time employees and eight volunteers who work out of the Derby Fire House on Crosswicks Street.
   "We'll still be utilizing the volunteers as much as possible," said Joseph Herzberg, the district's lieutenant.
   Lt. Herzberg said six more full-time employees are being added to the fire district due to the decrease amount of volunteers in recent years.
   "We're trying to increase the response and service to the taxpayers, and we weren't able to do that with the volunteer numbers," said Lt. Herzberg.
   Mr. Carr said the number of volunteer firefighters has decreased over the past five years nationwide due to the position's time-consuming demands.
   "It takes a lot of time and dedication," said Mr. Carr. "It takes a lot of time from the family."
   The current six full-time employees at the district work Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. with volunteers filling in during nights and weekends. With the new additions, employees will work 24-hour shifts with two days off afterward, said Lt. Herzberg.
   "This will allow us to have three people on (Derby) station, plus a supervisor during the day," said Lt. Herzberg.
   The new schedule will not go into effect until Aug. 19. Between Aug. 2 and Aug. 19, the full-time employees will receive in-house training at Derby Fire House and The Burlington Fire Academy in Westampton.
   Employees will receive training in emergency medical services, emergency training, and Bordentown Fire District procedures.
   "They'll be getting familiar with each other and our training," said Lt. Herzberg.
   All the new employees are currently fire volunteers for Bordentown Township or surrounding towns.
   Money for the new firefighters will come from this year's fire budget, which was approved by voters last February. This year's budget increased the fire tax by 7.8 cents from 10.2 cents to 18 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
   The new six full-time employees for Fire District Number Two will be sworn-in at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 2 in the Bordentown Senior Citizen's Center.
   They are: Dean Jernigan, James Johnson, Mark MacArthur, Robert MacFarland, Joseph Naprawa, and Keith Scully.

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