History
Associated Fire Protection was started by Mr. John Straten in 1947. Mr. Straten immigrated to the United States from Germany in the 1920's. In 1941, he was employed by the Walter Kidde Company as a sales engineer. He was given the opportunity to become an independent distributor of Kidde products in 1947 and was assigned Passaic and Bergen Counties as his sales territories. The first shop was a rented converted garage which still stands at 313 Atlantic Street, Paterson, not far from the company's present location.
At first, the only responsibility of a Kidde distributor was to recharge and repair portable fire extinguishers. Slowly, Kidde increased the responsibility of the distributor to include the selling of fire extinguishers, and then the selling and installation of automatic fire suppression systems. Finally, with a full engineering distributorship came the responsibility for the engineering, stocking, installing and maintaining sophisticated fire protection and suppression systems.
After Mr. Straten’s death in 1969, his son, Roland took over operation of the company in 1971. Under Mr. Roland Straten, the company continued to grow. More trucks and employees were added to meet the growing volume of business. Since 1971, the company has expanded from five employees and three trucks to over 60 employees. A four ton liquid carbon dioxide container was purchased to hold carbon dioxide to refill CO2 system cylinders and bulk handling equipment for halon 1301 was installed. In 1987, the company started a separate sprinkler division which was later merged into the installation department. Additional product lines were added and the company branched into the sales of safety equipment from its existing lines of fire suppression equipment.
Mr. Straten acquired his professional engineers license in 1977 and his electrical contractor's license in 1984 making the company the only full service fire protection company in New Jersey with these capabilities. Associated Fire Protection can engineer, install, and maintain sprinkler systems, clean agent fire suppression systems, and fire alarms.
As the company grew, more space was needed. The small converted garages were left in 1952 for a larger building at 287 Mill Street. In 1962, this building was replaced by one at 540 Straight Street. In 1972, garages at 263 Spring Street were purchased and in 1976, 58 Washington Avenue was leased. Finally, in 1986, the present 14,000 square foot warehouse and office complex was built at 100 Jackson Street, Paterson. The new facility was designed from the ground up to house a fire equipment distributor and has the most modern equipment available to fully provide for the fire protection needs of its customers.
Associated Fire Protection serves thousands of companies in the tri-state area. They range from small retail stores with two fire extinguishers to Fortune 500 companies with sophisticated fire suppression systems.