Mutual Aid Mutual Aid is were one fire company does not have enough equipment or man power to control a fire and in turn the requesting fire company promises to come to the aid of it's neighbor. No one fire company or town has enough money to buy all the equipment for the big fire that may never happen. In Gloucester County this system of mutual aid is not as formal as in some parts of the country with large written agreements and payment plans. It is relativity free from government politics which is why it probability works so well. However it must be mention that there is some politics at the fire company level.
Every department has a preference of who to call into the scene first.
But sooner or later there is that big fire which everyone gets invited. Friendship Fire Company and the Woodbury Fire Department has given as well as received it's share of mutual aid. As research continues I hope to get some pictures of our major fires as well as some of the major fires out of town that we have been to. Pictures such as Belbur Trunk fire and the Mobil Refinery fire are already on this site. We have been as far south as Salem County for the Penns Grove conflagration, and into Camden County into Gloucester City for a paper mill and into Camden City for a shipyard fire and every place else in between over the years.