North Hunterdon Fire Alliance (NHFA)

The North Hunterdon Fire Alliance is made up of 5 core departments located in Hunterdon County New Jersey.

• High Bridge Fire Department (Station 14)

• Lebanon Borough Fire Department (Station 18)

• Town of Clinton Fire Department (Station 45)

• Annandale Hose Company (Township of Clinton) (Station 46)

• Quakertown Fire Company (Franklin Township) (Station 91)

​The NHFA was founded in 2017 to help unify our departments, as we frequently respond with each other in a mutual aid capacity. The Alliance, formerly known as the North Hunterdon Mutual Aid Group (NHMAG) has created standardized SOPs/SOGs known as our "Best Practices" to help unify inter-department operations. These standardized best practices are not concrete but are a base procedure to be adapted and modified to work effectively for any scenario.

​The Alliance also has expanded to create the Station 51 program. The 51 program involves staffing a Squad on a rotating basis between the 5 departments. This staffed Squad unit is on duty from 1800 Saturday night until 0600 Sunday morning. This apparatus staffed by volunteers that stay in house during the shift provides exceptional response time and responds to any incident within the 5 districts. Squad 51 is alerted and responds in addition to, and not in place of, the local jurisdictions department. The name "Squad 51" is used to refer to the on-duty apparatus: For example, when CFD is staffed, Squad 45 will be operating under the name Squad 51 for the duration of the shift. The 51 program began as a 10-week pilot program on 1st July of 2017 and has been continued every week since its beginning with extreme success. NHFA departments have also started staffing additional shifts, such as Friday nights and weekday daytime shifts. Squad 51 has run many notable calls including several working structure fires, major motor vehicle accidents, an airplane crash, as well as numerous other gas leaks, alarms, and other calls for service.

​The districts covered by the NHFA Station 51 program spans across parts of 10 municipalities which encompasses approximately 30,000 residents. During the first year of operation, Station 51 was staffed for about 1,100 hours. The program has led to numerous inquiries from across the State and region for areas who are considering a similar idea to combat lower volunteer membership and slow response times. If you are interested and would like more information please reach out to any member department. NHFA is thankful for all the support our agencies have received in this venture and most importantly is proud of the improvement in the services we are able to provide to our citizens and visitors.