A New Jersey fire department that served its community for 118 years was dissolved after the mayor spent years arguing residents faced danger from insufficient staffing.
The Woodbridge Township Council voted 8-1 on Aug. 12 to dissolve the Keasbey Fire Department and merge it with neighboring Fords Fire Company, ending the historic firehouse’s run that began in 1908. Mayor John McCormac, who led the push to close the department, hailed the vote as a public-safety victory after raising alarms since 2021.
“We stressed that Keasbey residents were not currently safe with the situation that exists and that not having proper firefighter response to a structure fire was in fact an emergency,” McCormac said at the meeting. “This issue was not about finances but about public safety.”
The eight paid firefighters will keep their jobs and transfer elsewhere in the township, along with volunteer firefighters. Council members secured approval from the NJ Local Finance Board, which backed the ordinance 7-0, according to McCormac.
“Our presentation noted the history of our concerns with Keasbey going back to 2021, and our requests to the state to perform the study in 2025 and the report the state issued in 2026 recommending the merger,” McCormac said.
“We spoke about the inability for Keasbey to respond to fires with the recommended number of firefighters in order to gain access to a structure and with the required number of firefighters responding to a scene within the mandated time frame,” the longtime mayor contended.
McCormac also emphasized tax implications, noting Keasbey carried the highest fire district taxes in Woodbridge despite being the smallest district with the fewest calls. “We mentioned in the property tax savings resulting from the merger and that the average homeowner would see a $1,000 per year drop in fire district taxes in Fords compared to Keasbey,” he said.
Keasbey Fire officials pushed back hard on the mayor’s claims. They alleged McCormac’s numbers about call volume were false, stating the department averaged 16 calls monthly over the past year — higher than the “10-12 responses per month” in the state report and far above the “barely one call a week” figure they attributed to township arguments. The department noted it had responded to 10 calls in the week ending Aug. 12 alone.
A petition with 1,452 signatures opposed the dissolution, invoking the department’s deep roots. “For more than 118 years, the Keasbey Fire Department has faithfully protected the residents, businesses, industries, and visitors of the Keasbey community. Since 1908, generations of firefighters have answered emergency calls, protected lives and property, and served with courage, dedication, and pride,” the petition read.
The petition traced the department’s origin to a fire at the Ostrander Fire Brick Company that exposed the lack of proper fire protection. “Rather than accept that loss, the people of Keasbey chose to act,” it stated, noting the Protection Fire Company No. 1 formed on June 1, 1908 and served the small community west of Staten Island continuously since.
Keasbey Fire Chief John Manna accused McCormac and the council of conducting back-channel private negotiations while keeping the department in the dark. “We did not receive the due courtesy of an explanation by township officials of what you wanted to do, why you wanted to do it, what the process was going forward and the potential impact upon our operations,” Manna said, according to NJ.com. McCormac has denied the claim.
Fire district attorney Howard Pashman floated a darker motive at the meeting, suggesting development pressure drove the closure. “The only missing piece of that puzzle is the firehouse where Fire District Number 4 is located at 420 Smith Street,” Pashman said. “That’s the missing piece.”
Fords Fire District is now the title owner of the former Keasbey Firehouse and will make the final decision on selling the building, McCormac said during the town council meeting on Aug. 18.