Although we can agree that the rig placement was not correct, those commenting should know a few things about the NJTP. The State Police will only allow you to close the lane in which the incident is involving. Unless the incident is involving multiple lanes, or if they believe an investigation is needed. If you get the lane over on the turnpike it’s a luxury. At past incidents state troopers have fought with firefighters and fire chiefs if they attempted to close a lane, including threatening to lock them up. If we take time to look at the video rather then immediately destroy those that responded we can see that the State police closed the left lane further back. You can see a NJTP authority pickup (in Orange) and what appears to be a NJSP Troop car(In White) behind that. If we look further down the road it appears that there may be an additional NJSP Troop car closing the lane down. This however does not change the fact that the first and 2nd arriving apparatus were incorrect for not positioning in a manner which would provide some protection to the operating members. The 1st or second arriving apparatus could have parked on an angle blocking most of the left lane. Another option would have been placing the the 1st arriving apparatus in front of the pickup. And the 2nd arriving apparatus could have blocked the left lane. This would allow the member’s to stretch from the upwind side. And the 2nd arriving apparatus. Unfortunately the NJTP Authority would rather have Firefighters risk them selves rather then slow down traffic anymore then they deem necessary. They view slow downs and lane closures as lost money. In most cases taking 1 to 2 lanes or closing the highway during the time the FD is on the scene is the most logical and safest option for the members on scene. But unfortunately the NJTP does not allow that. Last but not least, I am not a member of the department that responded but I figured a knowledgeable explanation would help.

My heart pounding for the safety of the firefighter........

I am glad I live in a town where the police and us Volunteer FireFighters get along. We always put safety first and the fire response commands the scene.

Wow, 2 engines on scene and both are improperly parked to provide protection for firefighters

Everyone rightfully talking about the fireman's safety but here i'am like, this is so pleasant without annoying commentary or unnecessary music.

I am SHOCKED that people passed that close or even were allowed to pass that close. Crazy. Even passing at all is crazy.

I'm impressed at how traffic kept flowing. Here in Southern California, I guarantee you the freeway would've been backed up half a mile in BOTH directions.

Just wanted to compliment you on the videography. This is an absolutely perfect use for a drone. I have seen drone footage from fire scenes before, but something about this video and how you shot it stands out. Nice job. 👍🏻👍🏻

Wow my biggest respect to that only one firefighter for putting his life at risk not only by being the only one who put up the fire but by also being the only one out on the actual highway as idiots don’t move to the far right lane for the firefighters safety. And state police helping guide fast flow traffic. The fact that they can’t use two lanes makes no sense. But that firefighter definitely deserves respect!!!

Great video from the drone, but some strange firefighting practices. The safety aspect was the most lacking, to have a firefighter working with the lane next to him open was a worry .

I worked heavy recovery. You can never get drivers to slow down. But you start one fire and everybody slows down. There's something very primal about it.

This is truly a work of art. Fantastic footage, beautiful sound. Thank you!

That firefighter was in a real bad position all it takes is a careless driver speeding thru the smoke and not have any time to hit the brakes to begin slowing down before the firefighter gets hit.

Drone footage was pretty sweet. Stay safe man!

Great drone video!! Volunteer company, first engine only 2 person crew. Weekday response can be tough for vol companies during the day when many members are at work. Smart to bring the second engine for personnel and water. Really should have blocked a couple travel lanes and pulled a cross lay. Sorry to lose the snow plow, turning into a snowy winter ❄️

That lane was taken down, but the unit should have still been put out there for protection.

Nice drone video! Very unique POV! Thanks 👍

Great footage. Drone was something else. Thank you and Happy and Safe New Year!

Scene safety is a joke apparently to this department.

Around 1:08 you can see a vehicle blocking the left lane. That's all about you're gonna get on the Pike. Great video.

Love the drone video and hope to see more videos used by it. It gives you a better eye on what is going on.

Jersey is wild. I'm from the midwest, I can't even fathom cars passing by that close to an active scene, and right next to responders. Cars passing within six inches of a charged hose? Unreal. Stupid, and dangerous.

Great Footage, Like The Drone Angles. Good Job 👍

Great drone video, excellent content.

That's some awesome footage!

OMG!! watching the fire fighter with the hose in an unprotected lane had me on pins & needle thinking someone could or would mow him down....what a BS MESS!! I moved to Florida from NJ in '87...down HERE...the FD determines what needs to be shut down or rerouted, and the police help make it happen....sheesh!

park upwind and where the hell are the state troopers ????

Absolutely disgusting that we favor keeping lanes/highway open instead of minimizing risk to first responder's life.

Nice drone work, Ryan!

Nice work with the drone footage!

I can't believe that the traffic was allowed to continue flowing just as if nothing had happened. The road should have been closed as it would be in the UK. Total madness!

Very nice video! Well done!

Great footage

Highway still open and no protection for crew

Awesome drone video! That thing sure produced a lot of smoke. I do think they should have blocked off at least a couple lanes. The white truck at 6:04 got pretty close. If the hose would’ve been in his lane that would have been bad. Still a good job on the quick knock down 👏

Great footage bro

great footage

Like most people in this Country, you don't pay attention in what you see, That LANE Was SHUT DOWN, Use your Eyes!!!

No more truck payments!

Reading the comment about the firemen safety is so true", I wondered the same thing why they weren't in front of the burning pickup ? Being exposed to the smoke and chemicle used to turn off the fire. If the case about closing lanes is an issue " the cops that obstruct lanes for NO justified reason which is NO life saving emergency "should be written up" or threatend for that stupidity.

For all those here, zamboni243’s explanation is spot on. For 25 yrs(10 of which were 1st due on the TRNPK) I’ve expressed all your concerns, griefs and policies. BUT what y’all don’t remember is that this is New Jersey! It’s fucked up! Period.

Surprising there's no police presence along with the fire brigade and no traffic control for the safety of the fire crew. In the UK the both sides of the road would be held back until the emergency was over and vehicle removed from carriageway.

Great video. Only one I've seen in birds eye view.

Nice drone work!!!

Amazing Drones !!

Strangely ironic that the burning truck has a snowplow on it.

Excellent video, especially the Drone footage. Glad to see traffic stayed clear if the truck. Is East Brunswick Fire a paid Department?

I would understand keeping an engine behind the fire if they would have used it to protect the crew, but they didn't. So they park in the direct line of the smoke (not very healthy) and do not care of blocking the lane next to the car fire to keep their people safe....

Nice Catch.. Hey, I need to get in contact with you somehow regarding the Hurricane Ida pics and vids you had when you followed us around for that water rescue. (Rocky Hill)

Amazing how fast the fire is out when one man pours some water (or was it foam?) on it. Thanks for the great drone visuals.

I was about to comment on the fact that it is scary to see the FD not have traffic protection authority like we do here in Ontario, Canada. I have not seen a traffic incident here where the FD were on the side of the road, even on smaller roadways. Here, the threat of arresting a FD member for blocking traffic regardless of the amount of traffic, does not exist. In intersections even, they park anyway they want, and on a few occasions, the way way the do in the middle of an intersection for a traffic accident, does not always make sense, but the job gets done. Compared to this video, Ive seen vehicle fires, where they block all lanes in the same direction, and a few in the opposing lane, for everyones protection. The opposing lanes are blocked primarily for avoidance of any accident between vehicles themselves should the smoke cause obscure vision passing through. The white truck passing in this video so fast while the firefighter was there, is shocking.

God bless America ❤

Firefighters who are parking against the wind behind the burning car in the smoke and heat... instead of parking in front... veeery intelligent ;-) ;-)

WOW!!!!!!! A fully engolf snow plow truck fire😮😮😮😮😮

At first, I tought that it was a kind of a ceremony: You put a truck in fire, in the middle of the road, and then, make as if nothing happens. Those who pass near the fire being «purificated» in some way.

Since there wasn't any snow anywhere.. gotta assume it wasn't that cold yet.. plow trucks get very hot @ highway speeds because the snowplow blocks airflow to the radiator. Might've not been paying attention until something flammable burst & ignited ... I've seen it before...

The white smoke means a new truck has already been chosen. lol

Wow these flame paint jobs are looking more real by the year.

danke

It’s absolutely amazing how many idiots stayed in the adjacent lane as they passed the burning truck.

Amazing how much a drone adds to the video.

Great video. PROBLEM...FIRE APPORATUS SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE NUMBER 1 LANE TO PROTECT THE FIREFIGHTER FROM TRAFFIC.

. . . what a - wow! - really remarkable high quality recording - which equipment is used ?

Those are some crazy long lane markings compared to what we have down south

If that happened on the Garden State Parkway traffic would back up for five miles on both sides of the highway, everybody has to look.

Pretty good work for a jersey dude.

gladys hernandez... si tu estas por ahi cuidate mucho

I understand what you're saying and it's BS. Screw the njtp. The car fire is in one lane and the hose line and the ff is in the other. That's two lanes. Block them both. But thanks for the explanation of how screwed up NJ is.

In Toronto, Canada the traffic would have been jammed just to see a vehicle on the side of the road with flat tire. I'm impressed how traffic continued to flow. I thought when the smoke covered the firetruck the fireman were in danger of being hit, especially the one who was in control of the hose.

We had a mutual air fire once from the town across the river we were fighting a three story 100 year old house. They brought their brand new ladder truck that they got a week earlier $100,000.00 dollar truck parked infront of the fire so they could use the ladder which had a deluge gun attached too it. They couldnt get the ladder to go up and continued to try. In about 10 minutes we were fighting two fires. We let the house burn and tried to save the truck. Oooops that didnt work. When I retired two years later they were still fighting with the insurance .

Wow no one came to help I feel sad I would help if I was on the road I am so sorry for those people we love you

I never realised how much “seconds” actually matter in fires. Literally they change second by second!

I like the way the traffic keeps moving.nobody stops to see if anyone needs some medical assistance.

Loved the drone shots! What drone do you use?

Amazing! Firetrucks don't block traffic unnecessarily, unlike Minnesota were they park across all lanes of traffic.

Why the hell did the driver bury that engine in the cloud of smoke like that? Why not pull ahead of the scene if he knew what direction that smoke was traveling to make attacking it a little easier and more visable?

are you flying a drone above active lanes of the freeway? And what about the apparatus standing behind each other, while that one firefighter had to go into the left lane to extinguish the fire?

Woww! Big time burn on a pro-grade pickup... With all the big, thick smoke at first, I thought it probably was a big rig tractor!

This is crazy, this firefighter is not protected from oncoming traffic. In 1998 the Lionville Fire Company responded to a traffic accident on the PA Turnpike, while members were loading the patient on to the ambulance, a tractor trailer came barreling thru and hit about 8 members killing one of them (David Good). This is dangerous and careless on the part of the NJ Turnpike.

*2nd rig arrives* Hey can we help? Nah, Probie's got this...

Timestamps 0:01 Ground spectation and Fire start 0:42 Drone video 4:38 Firefighter arrival 5:44 Firefighters start fighting the fire 6:09 Fire is getting under control (white smoke) 7:03 Second firetruck arrival 7:42 Fire put out

Looks like he's not doing any snow plowing this year!

If it had been a Tesla it could have taken several hours to extinguish the fire.

This shows that you need to keep up on maintenance on your trucks during the snow season that way this won’t happen. It was a blown engine that caught fire it looks like. That comes to my second conclusion make sure you buy the right equipment for the trucks you have so you can prevent this from happening to you. Don’t buy the biggest and best plow and salter if you only have a 3/4 ton truck upgrade or get the right weight rating for the truck you have.

What pisses me off is all the cars driving in the far lane closest to the FF when the traffic isn’t backed up they could of ran the far right lane they were only 1’ from hitting his damn hose. I worked scenes on tolls and such or the people commenting on the firefighting practices. Let me just assure you I’ve dealt with turnpikes and tolls. And the firefighting practices you see are most likely because the NJTP has them by the balls and micro manages how many lanes they close. As you see they are hyperaware of blocking the lanes which means they probably won’t allow them to block anything other than the lane the incident is in. But then it’s up to the public not to be ass holes and drive in the far left lane when it was not nessasary. They were more worried about speeding by everyone and could careless about the guy. Had they hit his hose it could have been fatal. Multiple fatal events have occurred from a hose strike.

First in engine just a two man? Nice work.

Wow those were great views from the air. Thank you for sharing this with us. That first fireman who showed up was in danger of getting hit by some careless driver, like the white F150 white Ford truck that passed him by without slowing down, and in danger of getting hit by fragments if that truck had exploded. Based on that huge black smoke and big fire in the rear my hunch is that the thing was going to explode, Great, and amazing video footage. I am glad they were able to put it under control. In situations like this there is always a chance of another accident because drivers slow down to look and see what is going on and you always have the desperate knucklehead driver trying to pass by quickly. Everyone should slow down and move to the right to give these heroes the space and safety they need to complete their jobs.

Up here in Ontario Canada, if a tire falls off a car, the police shut down the whole highway for 3 hours to investigate.

What a bad way too position the fire truck.

This guy is always one of the first on the problem😭

That's really terrible when not even one car stops to administer help!!!!!!! I'm truly disappointed in mankind!!!!!!!

Yip. That about right. That the typical amount of exhaust outta my F-450 Twin-turbo diesel. It blood red, with a little blue & white. To remind people they in the USA.

5:00 Park that fire truck downwind from the fire so the FFs can breathe in the lovely toxins.

I echo the other comments. I can't believe the risk this firefighter was in, with an active lane right next to the hose line. No cones or anything.

Lol the fire truck parks downwind of the smoke.

Craiglist sale of the day: For sale quick, 2012 Chevy truck with plow, minor fire damage, ran great until rat chew through wire in engine bay which caused fire , needs minor repair.

In the UK there would be 2 fire engines sent and these would place themselves in fend off position over 2 running lanes just before the car fire, so Ffs would get out of the left side and have a bigger protected working area. The second appliance would pump their 1800l of water into the first, if necessary. I don't see too much wrong with the clip apart from the hose pressure given to the Ff at the end was a little high and he could have used his V spray better to economise water use more effectively. In the UK the fire service can`t officially close lanes but the Police are OK about letting the fire service get on with it but the Police can pull rank if they want to but not to the extent that is described in NJ. Seems like they don't have a very good working relationship, which is a shame but if you have ever worked in the Fire Service (same in the UK) there was always a bit of needle between the two departments. Seemed that all coppers wanted to be ffs but no ffs wanted to be coppers!

I would like to know why the police did not provide safety measures for the firemen fighting the fire. That middle lane should have been shut down allowing the men to work under safer conditioners. I guess it's more important to keep the traffic moving than saving a fireman's life.

Omg no one blocked the lanes? The police should have done that!

Wow😮