The City of North Wildwood is a barrier island city apart of a five mile long island with five separate cities located in Cape May County, New Jersey. The city was initially incorporated as the Borough of Anglesea on June 13th, 1885. North Wildwood was officially incorporated on April 30th, 1917, after being previously referred to as Anglesea Borough and Brough of North Wildwood. The city consists of approximately 2.5 square miles total with 1.73 of them being land and .77 being water. North Wildwoods year-round resident total consists of approximately 3,500 residents. In the summer during various holidays and events that number can grow to over 100,000.
The fire department was formed initially by two separate volunteer companies, Anglesea Fire Company #1 and North Wildwood Fire Company #1. Anglesea was formed in 1897, and North Wildwood Volunteer Fire Company #1 was formed on March 16th, 1901. In the mid 1920’s the career division was established with part time paid drivers referred to as “housemen”. One firefighter was assigned to each of the fire houses in the city during this period. In 1943 the career members applied and were accepted into the New Jersey Firemen’s Benevolent Fund with the city officially establishing a paid fire department in 1945 by ordinance. In 1994 the city realized that both firefighters working should be responding to calls together to improve safety and service delivery. A year later in 1995 the fire department took responsibility for handling emergency medical services.
In the year 2000 the paid fire department moved into the current station at 4th Avenue & New Jersey Avenue. Currently, the career division consists of four platoons with four career firefighters on each, staffing the department year-round, along with a deputy chief and department chief. The department staffs a 2020 Ferrara 107’ quint and a Basic Life Support ambulance. Responsibilities include ocean rescue, high angle rescue, vehicle extrication, fire safety education and EMS. On average the North Wildwood Fire Department handles 2,800 incidents a year with an even split of 1,400 calls for service for fire and EMS.
