GARWOOD — Over the course of the past several months, Garwood residents have been taking to social media to call the borough’s volunteer fire department to task for allegedly failing to maintain certain mandated safety certifications. Last week, borough representatives sat down with The Westfield Leader and Union County HAWK in an attempt to clear the air.

“There is a whole list of certifications that you need to be a firefighter and then there is a separate list of things that you need to have if you want to be an officer,” Garwood Mayor Jen Blumenstock said, adding that the minimum requirements to join any department — whether paid or volunteer — are established at the state level.

Last year, after hearing concerns from several residents, the borough council voted to adopt an ordinance intended to further codify the roles and responsibilities of the department and to make sure that all of its members were in compliance.

“When we put this ordinance into place, we worked with the state to get [the list of requirements for each position] and then started working with the department to make sure that everyone had all of their necessary paperwork,” Mayor Blumenstock said. “Now, we have a cross-check system in place. The department holds all of the certifications, but now we have records of them at city hall as well.”

Councilman Vincent Kearney, who served as the borough’s fire commissioner, said the ordinance represented “necessary modernizations” to the local fire code, which was last updated at some point in the 1980s.

“Our intent was not to impose a higher standard than the one established by the state. We just wanted to make sure we were in line with everything that they were telling us that they needed,” Mr. Kearney said.

Once the ordinance was adopted, the borough discovered that several of the department’s firefighters, especially those who either held or wanted to be considered for officer positions, would need to obtain additional certifications.

Two officers were demoted to the rank of firefighter and one firefighter was temporarily remanded to the auxiliary squad as a result of the borough’s inquest.

Mr. Kearney said he believed that the firefighter who was demoted to the auxiliary squad likely does possess the necessary certifications but simply never filed them with the state.

“You cannot graduate the fire academy and become a firefighter in the State of New Jersey without passing the requisite exams,” he said.

Residents also have expressed concerns regarding the amount of time that it took for the borough to intervene.

“There was a lot of paperwork and administrative back-and-forth that had to be handled here,” Mayor Blumenstock said. “We have over 30 members on our department, and everything had to be checked and crosschecked. It wasn’t something that we could rush.”

Last month, the mayor received an email from Steven Dyl, the region state fire coordinator for the state’s Urban Area Security Initiative, stating that all of the department’s current officers and firefighters “appear to be in compliance” with all mandated state-level regulations, but noted that several officers were missing certain certifications related to Hazardous Material Incident Command (HMIC), a high-level certification that needs to be obtained in order to oversee dangerous spills or incidents.

“It is important to note that Fire Chief Scalzadonna and Deputy Chief Gregory took a pro-active approach and made contact with the Division of Fire Safety prior to my receiving the complaint,” Mr. Dyl wrote in his letter. “I met with both of them and they were receptive to my recommendations.”

The necessary HMIC course currently is not being offered through any of the state’s accredited fire academies, Mayor Blumenstock said, but the borough will be requiring any officer who does not already possess the certification to obtain it as soon as the class reopens in May or June.

And while the local-level certifications will be taken care of as quickly as possible, Mr. Kearney added that the borough will continue to partner with the Union County Bureau of Hazardous Materials to ensure proper protocol.

“All of those folks, plus all of the county coordinators, have higher level certifications even than this, so we are now and always have been fully covered in the event of an emergency,” he said.