By Brad Rhen
The Lebanon Daily News
FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa. — Funding cuts at the Fort Indiantown Gap fire department could soon leave the installation without overnight fire protection.
And several local fire companies have balked at a proposal to be primary responders to the Gap during the lull, which will be between midnight and 8 a.m.
Gap spokesman Maj. Cory Angell confirmed that due to budget constraints, the fire department, which has 13 full-time firefighters, will not be able to be on duty 24 hours a day.
“We’ll continue to provide the same support we’ve provided while we’re on duty,” he said.
The new hours for the Gap’s fire department are set to kick in on Feb. 19.
Gap officials held a meeting in January with representatives from four local volunteer fire companies — Ono, Lickdale, Green Point and Grantville — and asked if they could be primary responders during the hours the Gap fire department will be out of service.
“Fort Indiantown Gap has reached out to all those local departments we’ve worked with over the years and let them know we won’t have the capability,” Angell said.
Matt Hetrick , chief of Ono Fire Company in East Hanover Township, was at the meeting. Hetrick said Ono would like to “help them out,” but said it would be asking a lot for a volunteer fire company to be the primary responder to the Gap.
“As volunteers, we have enough trouble guaranteeing 100 percent protection of our own areas, and to be faced with having responsibility for basically another small town, with nothing in writing as to what the expectations or responsibilities would be ... it seems poorly managed from my standpoint,” he said.
Hetrick said the Gap’s reduction in hours will have repercussions for the communities with which it has mutual-aid agreements.
“We count on them to come into our area,” he said. “Mutual aid works both ways, and I think it’s been a nice relationship, but apparently the management at Fort Indiantown Gap doesn’t see the need to staff their fire department 24 hours a day. I can’t understand it.
“We don’t mind the mutual aid, but being asked to be the primary responder for fire protection with nothing in writing and totally for free with nothing in return, doesn’t sit too well,” he added.
In a letter to Gap officials obtained by the Lebanon Daily News, Hetrick said the reduction of hours by the Gap’s fire department could have ramifications for the two companies’ mutual-aid agreement.
“We will continue our current mutual aid agreement, however, if the Fort Indiantown Gap Fire Department is out of service on a regular basis, we consider that mutual aid agreement to be broken and will take appropriate action to replace the Fort Indiantown Gap Fire Department with other fire departments or agencies that are willing, in the best interest of public safety, to provide 24 hour protection,” he wrote.
Paul Snyder, chief of Lickdale Fire Co. in Union Township, said members of his company feel the same way.
“Our reaction is ... we do not want to the primary response unit after hours and weekends,” Snyder said. “We will be mutual aid, but we do not want to be the primary, first-in after hours. That’s what we told them when we had our meetings.”
One reason Snyder said he is against the idea is because of the possibility of dealing with military equipment at the Gap.
“There’s a lot of different types of things that we don’t know what’s in buildings, buildings that we don’t have keys for and things like that,” he said.
Snyder said the Union Township supervisors have agreed with fire departments’ stance, and the township’s solicitor will soon send letter to the Gap explaining it.
Angell said Gap’s fire department’s decreased hours will not affect its primary mission, which is to support the flight facility at Muir Army Airfield.
Located directly across Fisher Avenue from the fire department’s building, the airfield is the second busiest helicopter base in the world, according to the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs website.
Joan Nissley, a spokeswoman for the DMVA, said flights between midnight and 8 a.m. are rare, and they are expected to continue despite the fire department being off duty.
“It’s not very routine to have night-time flights, but sometimes we do have them, and they’ll probably continue,” she said. “That’s not to say it wouldn’t change down the road as they look at it further. But at this point, it will continue.”
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