Coverage is Being Maintained by the Career Department.
THE CITY COUNCIL OF MEADVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA, AT ITS monthly meeting last night voted on and passed, without comment or debate, a resolution to immediately shut down a volunteer fire company that has failed to maintain standards, training and the ability to respond to calls. The city’s primary fire coverage is by a career department that continues to operate.
Withing 30 minutes after the unanimous vote, the police department had padlocked the station and shut off power to the bay doors while the council meeting was still in progress.
The Meadville Tribune reports:
In formally terminating an agreement between the city and the volunteer department dating back to May 2002, the city also brought the department’s ability to use the city’s “real and personal property” to an immediate halt.
“Out of concern for the safety of all fire companies, citizens and the city, Council feels this is appropriate action,” Mayor Christopher Soff said after the resolution was introduced.
According to City Manager Joe Chriest, the building was locked primarily because the termination of the agreement also ended the volunteers’ coverage under the city’s workmen’s compensation program.
“We’re going to arrange for a time for representatives of the volunteer department and our department to go through the building and we’ll give them a specific time to get their equipment out,” Chriest said. “There will have to be an inventory of everything in the building.”
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Also, according to someone close to the VFD, only one person is qualified to operate the engine and none of the 17 members are certified for interior firefighting. This situation was displayed at a recent fatal fire in town that occurred in the MVFD’s first-due, just three blocks from the firehouse. The Meadville VFD pumper did not arrive on the scene until after the 3rd alarm had been struck. The only injury on that incident was a vol. member who had just been voted in and had received zero training but was permitted to handle a hose line.
The current membership organization was instituted in 2002 to reactivate a defunct company that had operated for more than 60 years, the S. B. Dick Hose Company. The city owns the real property and one of the engines as well as providing the utilities serving the building.
The Meadville Tribune has MORE.
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Firegeezer notes: This was a rare and extreme measure taken by the city council. The sudden seizure without prior notice indicates that there is something more serious inside this story. It will undoubtedly come out in the next few weeks. We will keep a watch on the activities.
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