Crime & Safety
A Change of Chiefs at Roslyn Fire Company
Thanks to Outgoing Chief Dale Jonas, Who Continues to Serve as a Firefighter, and to New Chief Michael Ratka, a Volunteer of Many Years
Roslyn, PA...After 10 years as Chief of Roslyn Fire Company, Dale Jonas has turned the reins over to his former deputy, Michael Ratka.
While new to the top spot, Ratka has been a Roslyn firefighter since moving here in 1986. Before he was deputy chief, he was assistant chief, captain, and lieutenant.
Thank You, Chief Jonas, for 24 Years and Counting
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Outgoing Roslyn Fire Company Chief Dale Jonas with a service award from Abington Township
Jonas will continue his 24-years-and-counting as an active Roslyn firefighter.
“I have a passion for the fire service,” he said. Even his paid job is fire-related: He services and repairs breathing apparatus as a service technician for The Fire Store.
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“The people I have met over my volunteer career are just incredible,” Jonas said. “And I’m looking out for my neighborhood, my community, the place where my kids live.”
Jonas took off his white chief’s hat to spend more time with those kids, Miguel, and Ava, and his wife, Michele, and also so that other Roslyn firefighters could move up in rank. “That’s important for the future of the company,” he added. “I know I’m not going to do this forever.”
Maybe not forever, but considering his dad, Dale Jonas Sr., celebrated 60 years with Roslyn last year, The Abington Township Fire Department is hopeful the former chief will serve the community for many more years.
Thank You, Chief Ratka, for Taking on This New Challenge
New Roslyn Fire Company Chief Michael Ratka, with children Ashley and Michael, is sworn in by The Honorable Judge John D. Kessler
Ratka became a volunteer firefighter in Jenkintown, his hometown, in 1978. He moved to Abington Township and joined Roslyn Fire Company when he married his wife, Jane. They have three children: Ashley, Kelly, and Michael. He works as a “computer guy” at IITCI in Warminster and coaches several youth sports teams.
What keeps him volunteering despite his busy life? There’s nothing like being a part of the Abington Township Fire Department family, he said. He and Jonas agree that kinship stretches beyond the Roslyn fire house, as all five ATFD fire companies work so closely together.
One of Ratka’s jobs as chief is to encourage more people to volunteer. Having more volunteers would ease the burden of current firefighters. “Firefighting is one part of it, but we are still a business in that we have to keep the heat on, the electric on, we have to do paperwork and accounting – and that is all done by us, too,” he explained. “Most of us have two or three jobs here.”
Roslyn, and all of ATFD’s fire companies, need more volunteers who fight fires and respond to accidents and other emergencies. However, they also need people to fill non-emergency roles.
Why should someone volunteer? “I can’t explain the joy that it will give you when you go out there and you help somebody,” he said. “It’s a great feeling.”
Interested in becoming an Abington Township Fire Department volunteer? Learn more or sign up at www.AbingtonFD.org.
