Newportville Fire Company Could Be Closed By Bristol Township Council
by Alex Lloyd Gross
According to statements by Bristol Township , they will take a vote to dissolve Fire Service from Newportville Fire Company and have fire services supplied by the four remaining fire companies instead of the current five. Areas within the Newportville fire district will be taken over by the other companies, if township leaders have their way. This will come to a vote on August 20, 2026 at the Bristol Township Building.
According to township administrators, the fire company does not respond to calls in a timely manner and they are dissatisfied with the fire company leadership. The township has said that he fire company is not doing what they were told to do. To take that as gospel you would think the fire company was run by rookies.
Digging deeper into the issue, and the statement released by the township, we found very serious discrepancies. According to Walt Prickett, President of the Newportville Company, when a fire company does not get a truck out it is called a scratch. “We scratched less than two percent of our calls in 2026 and when we met with the fire marshal (Kevin Dippolito) he was concerned with nights and weekend responses” Out of 300 plus calls this year, there were only eight calls that were delayed or no response during the weekend. How can you want to shut us down with those numbers,” Prickett asked. The township stated that in 2025 the fire company did not get a truck on the road 53 times. Out of the more than 700 calls ran by the volunteer organization, that’s about five percent.
On Sunday, the fire company responded to a fumes call at Levittown Trace. Gas was left on. It could have been catastrophic. Newportville got a truck there quickly, while Third District had a late response They were recalled by Newportville before they even arrived. The township wanted the fire company to merge with Third District..
Kim Houser, lawyer for the fire company said that the number of calls that the company did get a truck out to is above average for a volunteer crew. “It’s simply not true.and taken out of context. Every volunteer company scratches calls, it happens every day.” Earlier this year the fire company was told they had to merge with Third District Fire Company. “No council can mandate a merger,” said Houser. Still the council gave Newportville just six months to do something that would take years.
One would think that the township would communicate with the fire company. When Houser reached out to Randy Flager, the lawyer for Bristol Township, Flager was polite and nice on the phone. “He listened to what I had to say and agreed it made sense. He told me to contact Randee Mazur, the Township Manager. That was back in February and she has ignored all of my correspondence”, Houser said. In fact, Mazur has not responded to anyone from Newportville Fire Company. However, recently, before the proposed shut down she told the fire company administrators that everything was fine and she had no complaints, Houser said..
With no one responding to the fire company or their lawyer, it appears that the letter from Mazur, posted on social media does not tell the entire story. Mazur and or township council did meet with the other four fire companies in a secret, closed door meeting that Newportville, or the public or press was not invited to.
Township residents are in an uproar as the company has been with the community for almost 100 years. In fact,they were all set to celebrate the 100th anniversary next year, before the township council pulled the rug out from them. Furious voters have alluded to the fact that certain council members want the land to repurpose it. The rumor on social media is fanning the flames on this issue.
Council member Joe Glasson, is also a member of Levittown 2, which is a fire company in the township. Since the potential closure of Newportville will result in a financial windfall of over $100,000 to his company, in tax money, it is a conflict of interest for him to be involved in any decision regarding the fire company closure Newportville officials said. ..
In the past, Newportville Fire Company has hosted several open houses for people with Autism . They are very much engaged with the community, showing up for township events, hosting open houses and car shows.
A recent financial audit showed discrepancies that were put forth by previous administrations. All of the findings of the auditor have been corrected by the current administration, which Prickett said has been working diligently to correct those items. “Fire companies get audited and things get flagged all the time, you work with the State Fire Commissioner and the Auditor General to see if those things can be fixed and if not you make good on them, this is definatley not something to hang your hat on in good faith”, Houser said. Those people involved in the decision have since left the company administration over a year ago, according to the fire company.
It is fair to say that the Bucks County Rescue Squad previously had some levels of impropriety in the past and they were not shut down. Jessica Ireland, a friend of Mazur, who was accused of improper purchases when she worked for parks and rec is still facing some charges as that matter works it’s way though the court system. That department has not closed
The township ,through their statement, said they want to hear from residents and will weigh residents concerns before any vote. Apparently, Newportville Fire Company is on the agenda for this Thursday night to speak before council. The general public should show up to voice their support or opposition to the closure.
Township council and the administration owes a duty to everyone that lives, works or travels through the township. It’s 2:24 AM and a drunk driver just slammed into the car you were in at Ford and 413. Do you want your trained firefighters coming from around the corner or two miles away? Seconds count. The owners of multiple apartment complexes in the fire district as well as the residents who live there are not thrilled that the first due fire truck will be coming from up to three miles away. Farther, if that company is already on a different call. Those companies scratch calls as well. It is inevitable. It is going to happen.
Closing down the fire company will put a burden on taxpayers when police have to shut down traffic for hours at an incident. Officers will be brought in on overtime or possibly new officers have to be hired. Fire Police respond for free. Possible increased taxes could be the result when the fire police response in inadequate due to paying police to respond for traffic duty.. .
The discussion of the closure of Newportville Fire Company “is not something we did lightly”, Mazur wrote in a statement. Delaware Valley News.com made more than half a dozen attempts to reach Township Manager Randee Mazur and Assistant Township Manager Heather Satterly by phone. Not one telephone call was returned. We wanted to ask about the claims made by the fire company of no communication with them. We also wanted to ask why she released township funds to the fire company if they were as bad as she said in her prepared statement. We got no response.
According to the township’s website, here is how you can contact council and the administration. https://www.bristoltwppa.gov/348/Administration.
Ed Note- the author is a member of NFC.