‘It’s dangerous’: Delco fire house went out of service for over 12 hours leaving residents worried

Residents in Delaware County are expressing concerns after one of their local fire companies was out of service for over 12 hours on Wednesday night.

The Garrettford-Drexel Hill Volunteer Fire Company, or Station 20, is back up and running as of Thursday morning and neighbors say it needs to stay in service every day.

“Anything can happen, constant fires and accidents happening all the time,” neighbor Keisha McCloud said. “I was scared. It’s dangerous, what if I had a fire and my kids is in there?”

Upper Darby’s Fire chief says he told the volunteer fire company that they needed to have crews with a special certification for operating fire apparatus.

He says it’s been a rule since 2020, but it wasn’t being enforced for a while. Station 20 though has at least 15 members who have the certification, according to township leaders.

“So they were never told that they can’t go to calls and they never were told they needed to go out of service. What they were told, is that in order to respond to a call, you have to make sure you have people with the proper training,” Upper Darby Fire Chief Nicholas Martin said.

Chief Martin says that at numerous times over the years, Station 20 operated without a qualified crew and that’s what led to the initial conversation.

We talked briefly to Station 20’s chief on the phone who would only tell NBC10 this was just a hiccup and the station has been fully operational since 7 a.m. on March 26.

Upper Darby’s Chief says at no time were any neighborhoods in danger when Station 20 was out of service.

He also says he’s willing to help speed up training for any volunteer firefighters.