Norristown Fire Department adds new vehicle to the fleet

The Norristown Fire Department announces the acquisition of a new fire safety house made possible through the municipality’s first Capital Improvement Plan. The fire safety house is a custom built mobile educational trailer that will teach children the importance of fire safety education.

The trailer has two rooms, one of which is set up to teach safety in the kitchen and includes a stove, microwave and sink to teach how to prevent and extinguish fires on the cook top and safe cooking habits. The other room is a bedroom complete with a bed. This room is used to teach about smoke detectors, the importance of having an escape plan and how important it is to stay out of the building once evacuated.

The fire safety house is part of a 24 - piece fire department fleet. Fire Chief Thomas M. O’Donnell is grateful to both the community and Municipal Council for the acquisition.

“The real winners are the children in our community who will continue to have an opportunity to learn fire safety education for years to come,” said O’Donnell.

Council approved the $57,708 purchase of the vehicle with the adoption of the first Capital Improvement Plan to cover capital improvements throughout the municipality from 2017 to 2020.

The vehicle was built by Walters Groups in Middlebury,

Indiana. This investment replaces an almost 30-year-old fire safety vehicle that has been used to educate tens of thousands of students in the Norristown Area School District and their families. The fire safety house is part of a program to teach all second graders in the school district of fire safety and is used prominently at special fire prevention events throughout the community during the year.

“Fire education and prevention is one of the cornerstones of the Norristown Fire Department’s operations. It is as important—if not more so—as fire suppression because of our community’s density. The Municipal Council made a wise investment in keeping Norristown safe,” said Municipal Administrator Crandall O. Jones. The fire department expects to roll out the safety vehicle to community events and school fire prevention programs in 2021.