by Alex Lloyd Gross
A ribbon cutting was held at the new Bensalem Rescue Squad Building at 12:00 noon today . This building is the old Union Fire Company Firehouse, which was no longer being used. It is located on the 2000 block of State Road and is perfect for responses into area of Andalusia.
“This was a talked about thing to happen for a while and Mayor Joe DiGirolamo made it happen for us,” said Bensalem Rescue Squad Chief Tom Topley. The building will eventually be staffed 24/7 but for now it is only during daytime hours. The people that staff the rescue squad in Bensalem are paid and primarily not volunteers, according to Topley.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo Delaware Valley News.com Mayor Joe DiGirolamo gives his remarks during the opening.
When bad weather is forecast, Public Safety Director Bill McVey said fire trucks will pre stage trucks and personnel will be in the station for a quick response. Currently, the average response time is eight minutes. Flooded roads and bad traffic does impact that time. Plus it is safer. The longer distance an emergency vehicle must travel, the greater the chance of it being in an accident. This short response time to areas of the township will cut that risk down exponentially.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo Delaware Valley News.com The Rescue Squad is in the building.
In a few months, the squad will take over the bunk room and they will be using the day room. The squad will only use half the bays at first, but could expand to the other’s if needed. In the meantime, these bays are used to store fire apparatus.
At times during peak traffic , the population of Bensalem can reach 250,000 people which means increased traffic. The Bensalem Rescue Squad runs seven trucks , from three stations, Hulmeville Road, which is the main station (185) Street Road, which they share with fire station 65 (186) and now this one, which will identify as 187.
The Union Fire Company closed and is no more, after the consolidation of fire companies in Bensalem. Apparatus still sits in the firehouse but it is reserve apparatus, or apparatus that is for sale. Members of Union Fire Company have gone to other firehouses. They will all operate as members of the Bensalem Volunteer Fire Service, McVey said.