From the fire chief: new pumper increases capability
Canonsburg Volunteer Fire Department has taken receipt of a new 2022 Pierce mini attack pumper. This new piece to the fleet will supplement the two other engines, tower and 2 squads the department presently operates. The need arose during an inspection of the department by the third party agency that rates the quality of volunteer and career departments. While the department meets all requirements, it needed to add some additional pumping capacity to its existing fleet since we had to separate the pump on the Tower Truck to be either a truck or a pumper. The rating system for Departments is 1 to 10 or unclassified. Large metropolitan career departments generally rate 1 or 2. The average volunteer departments are 5 and above. We are proud to say we, in Canonsburg, received a 4 rating and just came in shy of a 3, which is outstanding for a volunteer department. With the addition of the new attack engine and some other changes that have occurred thanks to the borough enabling us to have in-house evening coverage basically Monday through Friday, plus directly paying for 90% of the new attack, we hope to bring the rating folks back in in 2023 and hope to reach that rating of 3 or better. The Canonsburg Volunteer Fire Department is always looking to attract new members. We meet every Monday night from 7 to 9 p.m. for meetings and training. If you find it is something you would like to do to give back to your community, please consider joining us.