DARBY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Officials in Delaware County are opening a new community resource center in a building that once housed a controversial fire company that was brought down by acts of racism. Now the former firehouse will be used to bridge the community together.
Briarcliffe Fire Company in Darby Township was shut down last year after Zoom video surfaced showing racial slurs and tasteless jokes about the death of 8-year-old Fanta Bility, a Black girl who was shot and killed by police officers at a high school football game.
“The organization has moved on, but it’s really a chance for Delaware County and our residents to move to the next level,” Delaware County Director of Emergency Services Timothy Boyce said.
That “next level” includes refurbishing the firehouse that Delaware County Council voted unanimously to purchase for a little more than $700,000.
It now sits empty and bare on Beech Avenue with a sign out front that reads “Closed, Thanks, Good Luck.” Boyce says soon it will go to good use.
“The center will allow the county to provide a host of activities that really serve the community, from continuing to address the pandemic, provide emergency services and focus a meeting point for the community,” he said.
“The county’s looking at the space as really multipurpose. Our health department partners continue to grow and need locations. We need locations to provide training, workforce development.”
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He adds the building will also serve as an education space.
“By opening up a community resource center — the first in the county in this location — it’s a great opportunity for the county to go back and serve the residents who frankly built this location,” Boyce said.
“We’re really hoping that it’s an easily accessible location in southeast Delaware County, one of our most crowded neighborhoods. We’ll be able to serve. We want to make sure we are available to the people.”
Boyce says they just really want to use the space to help that community in whatever way they can.