Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Centre Square Fire Company in Whitpain needs volunteers amid changing needs
There is a demand for more manpower in suburban fire companies
CENTRE SQUARE » The community fire siren goes off. It’s 95 degrees and humid. But it’s Sunday afternoon, and you’re settled in front of the TV, air conditioning blasting. Thankfully, the emergency playing out doesn’t involve you. On the other hand — despite the heat and the fact that they, too, were settled in front of their TVs with AC blasting — several other local men and women are heading out.
Welcome to the world of volunteer firefighters.
Centre Square Fire Company Vice President Tyler Brunner estimates the Whitpain Township company typically responds to 550 to 600 calls annually — calls that range from building and mulch fires to malfunctioning alarms, small animal rescues and ambulance assists. Because of global warming, glaciers are melting in the far North and wildfires and high temps are currently heating up landscapes in the American West and Europe. In this area, changes in everything from the local landscape to basic construction materials have contributed to the challenges firefighters face.
“With the rains we’ve had, we’ve been doing a lot more water rescues the last couple of years,” says Brunner, a CSFC lieutenant who also heads its relief association. “But the nature of fire fighting has definitely been changing locally with the more built-up industrialized areas, more malls, offices, that kind of stuff, which used to be open land and a few neighborhoods scattered here and there. You also see a lot of changes from single family homes to cluster homes or town homes, which adds a whole other wrinkle to it.
“The fires, themselves, they’ve changed with the way things are produced anymore. You go back 20 years even, furniture was largely hardwood. These days, with so much made out of particle board and some of the lighter, dryer materials you get with furniture now, the fires burn a lot hotter and faster because things are less-condensed.”
According to the history posted on CSFC’s website, the organization was established on Feb. 27, 1913. During the same period, Woodrow Wilson was U.S. president-elect, the nation’s new graduated income tax was about to become law and Hudson Motor Company had introduced the first sedan-style car at the National Automobile Show in New York.
CSFC’s foundation had been laid on Feb. 21, when “a group of local residents and property owners of Centre Square, Blue Bell, Belfry and nearby points in Whitpain and adjoining areas met in the large banquet hall of the Centre Square Hotel, owned by Mr. Charles H. Spaeth, to discuss and explore the possibilities of the establishment of a fire company.
“The subject received favorable consideration, a resolution was offered by Mr. C. Harry Danenhower calling for a town meeting in
the Odd Fellows Hall on Thursday evening, Feb. 27, 1913, to organize a fire company,” CSFC’s history continues. “The resolution was adopted and posters were ordered printed announcing the meeting.”
During Feb. 21’s gathering, it was reported that two “property owners had kindly consented to dam up the water on their properties so that they may be used in case of fire. It is believed most of the houses in the vicinity could be reached from either of these lakes by the use of 1,500 or 1,600 feet of hose.”
As author S.E. Hinton famously wrote, “that was then, this is now.” One thing that hasn’t changed? The ongoing need for new members. CSFC has three 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. paid staffers. But “after 3 and all weekend, we’re all-volunteer.”
“We currently have about 30 active members, but the odds of everybody being available at the same time are slim,” explains Brunner, whose mother, Sharon, volunteers with the company’s fire police; sister Jessica, with its frontline fire fighters. “We all have jobs and family obligations. The other thing, a lot of people join when they’re 16…like I did. The problem is, when they get to be 24-25, and they’re looking for housing, unfortunately, this is not a super affordable area so they end up moving out of the area and you lose people that way.
“We’re always looking for people. I think there’s a misconception that you need to be a 30-year-old, extremelyfit person to be with a fire company. But that’s not accurate
at all. Obviously, we’ll take those people. But it’s more about knowledge than physical attributes. More about the training we do — classes at Montgomery County Fire Academy and here every Monday night. That training teaches you how to protect yourself and the people around you in the circumstances we deal with.
“And we have all kinds of different positions within the fire company. Ages 25 to 40 is probably the sweet spot for who we have right now in the firefighting aspect. But we have people
who solely drive trucks, and that’s an important job as well. We also have a fire police unit, which basically directs traffic at the scene. On the opposite side of it, we handle our own finances and do our own bookkeeping, so we can always use help from somebody who’s able to help us with our books.”
In general, Brunner says, CSFC needs “responsible people who are willing to learn.”
“That’s probably the most important thing. Things are ever changing. Our surroundings, buildings, the
way cars are built — for when we do vehicle rescues. That means fires are always changing, and we have to continue to learn to keep up. So that’s what we — or any of the volunteer companies — really need: People who have an urge to learn.”
Brunner invites men and women interested in volunteering or “even just learning more about the fire company” to attend one of CSFC’s Monday training sessions at 7 p.m. The fire station is located at 1298 W. Skippack Pike, Blue Bell. More information is available at www.csfc33.com.