Doylestown Fire Company 1 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania is reacting to a newspaper’s video showing local police officers leading the way in extinguishing a burning U.S. Mail truck.
The fire occurred yesterday (Monday) on Route 611. Three police officers attempted to use a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. Despite a firefighter in PPE on the scene, the police officers took the line from the Doylestown Fire Company 1 pumper that was first to arrive.
The fire company information confirms the cops are also volunteer firefighters, something we wondered about in our original post.
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Here’s the statement from Doylestown Fire Company 1:
Recently, video has circulated of a small fire in a postal vehicle in Doylestown Township, where it appears that three police officers are extinguishing a fire. In reality, two of the three are Doylestown firefighters, who were on their way to work as public servants at a facility in the area. The third is indeed a Doylestown Township police officer who was there to lend a hand, who is also a well-trained volunteer firefighter. Serving the public is what they do. The fire was small and contained to the engine compartment. A second, better staffed engine company arrived as the fire was extinguished.
As an all-volunteer organization, we occasionally are called and have fewer members than we’d like respond, or are delayed in response to their stations. Our members are trained to extinguish fires and mitigate emergencies as quickly and safely as possible. That was the goal of the members in the video and is every day we serve. What we wear for our jobs may be different, but at our core, when called, we are firefighters. In this incident, no one was injured, the fire was extinguished, and our members went to work like any other day.
Weekdays are the toughest times for most volunteer fire companies. Members no longer work at businesses that can allow them to respond to calls or don’t work close enough to respond safely. We’re always looking for individuals to join and help us keep the Doylestown community safe.
