PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — East Lansdowne is losing its fire company. The borough council voted Monday night to close the volunteer fire department at the end of the year.
Deputy Chief Steve Castellano joined the company as a cadet when he was 14 years old and has served for 21 years.
“It’s an emotional time — not really about me or where I stand, but the history of the organization, the number of people that we’ve had over the years, 114 years of service,” he said.
Borough Mayor Majovie Bland said there just aren’t enough volunteers.
“They were never first on scene in East Lansdowne, to our knowledge, for months,” he told NBC10.
And, he said, the costs to operate the company are skyrocketing. He said they would have had to raise the fire tax by 60%.
Instead, the borough is negotiating with neighboring fire companies like Lansdowne, Yeadon and Cardington Stonehurst for fire services. Those companies are all about a mile away from East Lansdowne’s firehouse.