It was a fire at a place where you’d think there’d never be a fire.
"When I heard the address over the fire pager, I went numb," Fire Company President Chuck Mancini said.
The Sharon Hill Volunteer Fire Department’s firefighters got paged to go to a fire- at their own firehouse in Deptford.
Once they realized no one was in the building, they then focused on getting their big equipment out. They couldn’t get their brush truck started. It was destroyed. But, through the smoke, they were able to get into the pumper truck.
"We couldn’t see. Everything we did was by feel. We got the truck started. We knew where the battery switches were, we knew where the engine switches were. We got it started and out the door it came," Battalion Chief Richard Thomas said.
In fact, after busting the pumper truck through the garage door, they used the truck to put out the fire that was burning, right on top of itself.
This was a bad situation, but no one was hurt. That’s a good thing. Another good thing? This station’s most valuable piece of equipment, their half million dollar ladder truck, had been taken out of the station at about 2pm Monday for routine service. So, thankfully, that truck was not present when the fire started.
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In the meantime, the firefighters promise there will be no disruptions in service. If the residents in Deptford have a fire, they’re gonna go put it out.
"We convened at about 2am, got our gear to our sister station, and we’re ready to go if we’re called upon," Deptford Township Fire Department Chief Stephen Hubbs said.
