AFTD Fire Prevention Week Open Houses Teach Fire Safety to Residents of All Ages and Reach Out to the Community for New Volunteers

Abington, PA…Abington Township Fire Department (ATFD) firefighters successfully hosted open houses at all five township fire companies during October’s Fire Prevention Week (Oct. 5- 11). Firefighters taught township residents fire prevention and survival skills. They educated them on services the fire companies provide and how they operate. And they urged residents interested in giving back to their community to join the firefighting ranks.

Kenny Montgomery, 6, wore both his Boy Scout uniform and a replica fire helmet at ATFD’s Edge Hill Fire Company open house.

“I learned how to use a fire extinguisher to put out fires,” he said, giving an example of why attending a Fire Prevention Week event earned him his first Boy Scout achievement badge. “I learned stop, drop, and roll.”

Kenny’s mom, Gina Montgomery, said the family has come every year since Kenny was a baby. He’s always loved the sights and sounds of the big trucks and displays, she said. Now that he’s a little older, “I make him go through the smoke house display, so that if there’s ever a fire, he knows to get out, and he knows to dial 911,” she said.

ATFD Fire Services Administrator David Schramm said that’s exactly the sort of fire safety lesson and community outreach Abington Township Fire Department aims for at the open houses held at Edge Hill as well as Abington Fire Company, McKinley Fire Company, Roslyn Fire Company, and Weldon Fire Company.

Even though ATFD has served the township for more than 100 years, township residents don’t always realize firefighters’ service is truly community service.

“One person I talked to tonight thought we are paid, and I had to tell him that we’re not,” said Edge Hill Fire Company President Nick Turco, a 35-year AFTD member.

It takes commitment to be a volunteer. One hundred hours of training are required just to get on a fire truck, Turco said, and those who actually enter burning buildings must complete nearly twice as many hours.

So why do it?

“I wanted to give back to the community,” said Turco. “And then it gets in your blood.”

Edge Hill Chief Frank Schuck has been a firefighter for 29 years. Firefighting is a tradition in his family, he said. And there’s nothing like the comradery shared among people who “work together as a team to serve their community.”

Company members come from many different backgrounds. Schuck has a scaffolding business. There’s always a host of non-firefighting jobs to be done around the firehouse, and Schuck is happy to match talents and interests to need. But at Edge Hill, “We’re all firefighters first,” he said. Not everyone has to go into the fires, but everyone must be willing and able to work on the scene, he said. Exterior jobs includes getting ladders and hoses to the right place.

Volunteers don’t have to fight fires forever, though. Some long-time members who are now senior citizens serve in other ways, such as running the mobile fire awareness and prevention trailer that the department takes to schools. School-age kids went through the trailer at the Friday, Oct. 10 open house as well, learning to stay low when the air inside filled with smoke and to always know two ways out of any structure.

In all, about 150 people attended the Edge Hill event, many of whom crowded around outdoor demonstrations of firefighting skills and potential at-home hazards, such as kitchen fires.

Several of the fire company’s younger members took a break from that outreach work to talk about what firefighting means to them.

“I love giving back to the community,” said Matt Lowry, a company member for three years. The work is also incredibly exciting, he said.

Mark Hood noted that firefighting teaches some amazing skills– things like working with electricity.

“All my friends are here,” said Dave Corrigan, who’s been a firefighter for nine years. “It’s a real brotherhood.”

Learn more at AbingtonFD.org and by clicking on the links for the five individual fire companies.

Photo: #1: Kenny Montgomery, 6, learned how to put out a fire with an extinguisher, and all about “stop, drop and roll” at Edge Hill Fire Company’s Oct. 10 Fire Prevention Week open house.