Lower Macungie Firefighters Prepare to Celebrate

"I always knew it was going to happen sooner or later," Fire Chief David Nosal says of the reality of Lower Macungie Township having a second fire station.

Whether you consider the completion of construction in 2009, the transfer of some apparatus in January 2010 or Saturday's building dedication as the date of "sooner or later," very shortly all will have come and gone. Any way you want to look at it, the second station will have become a reality.

On Saturday, the will dedicate the new facility, known as the Brandywine Station, and house a new engine. Members have invited the public to an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to inform them of the facilities their tax dollars help support and the services that are offered. A celebration dedicating the new building and housing a new firetruck will take place at 11 a.m.

As an additional highlight, the department's retired 1974 Mack ladder truck will return for a day for all to see. These days, the pumper is part of the Mack Trucks Historical Museum.

The organization began in 1924 as the Wescosville Fire Company. The original station is a brick building at . A , and a two-story addition was built in 1983 as even more space was needed.

As Lower Macungie Township began to grow from a farming community to the third-most populous municipality in the Lehigh Valley, fire officials encouraged township leaders  to build a second station that would provide more room and a central location in addition to the existing Brookside Road location. Fire officials and an independent study concluded that the site where the eventually was built would be an ideal location.

Although some insisted on the need to centralize, some neighbors objected to what they believed would bring noise and disruption to the area. Call it the Battle of Brandywine, for a time.

The studies and general belief that the Sauerkraut Lane and Mill Creek Road site was too good to pass up won out for several reasons, including access to major roads, the site already was owned by the township and 10,000 residents live within a 1.5-mile radius of the site, Nosal says. Department statistics also show that 45 percent of emergency activity takes place in the central corridor.

"We all knew that the township was growing, and the Fire Department had to grow with it," Nosal says.

Although the project appeared to be nearly dead in 2005, township commissioners agreed to the new station in 2008. Ground was broken in 2009, and the building was completed later that same year.

Nosal knows that all were not happy, but he believes they have been good neighbors and allayed fears.

Nosal says pagers have eliminated the need for an overhead siren. The station also does not have a social hall that would tend to produce music. And, he also instructs his volunteers not to use sirens on the trucks unless necessary, minimizing resident distraction.

The chief believes they are succeeding in being as "discrete" and "quiet" as possible. He says a neighbor asked him in April 2010 -- three or so months after the Fire Department occupied the building -- when they would be moving in.

The township paid for the $2.3 million 10,000-square-foot building. The Fire Department paid for the furnishings.

The department also paid the $800,000 bill for the 2010 Spartan engine that will be housed Saturday. The truck carries 500 gallons of water and pumps 2,000 gallons per minute. And, it  has a 68-foot ladder and a Compressed Air Foam System to smother some types of fires.

The new truck is housed at the Wescosville station along with a combination rescue/engine. The Brandywine station houses an engine, aerial and a special response vehicle for ambulance assistance and other uses and to tow a foam trailer. It is also home to the township's emergency management mobile command trailer.

"I'm ecstatic to see this project come together," Nosal says.

He added that the success is a credit to the efforts and foresight of present and past department leaders, members and township officials.

"There were a lot of people in the past who saw the needs of the future," he says. "That's some serious forward thinking."