Crime & Safety

Navy's Firefighters Halt Emergency Response Outside Air Base Property

Local fire companies reconfigure response plans to include departments from further away

Firefighters from the Willow Grove airbase worked alongside Horsham crews during two recent blazes as they have in previous instances for as long as anyone can remember.

But, like the impending closure of the , those days have come to an end. Actually, as of Tuesday, Horsham Fire Co. Chief Tim Flanagan said the base’s firefighters had stopped a long-time agreement to leave the sprawling 1,100-acre parcel to provide mutual aid in neighboring municipalities, most notably Horsham.  

 “Their focus really is the base,” Flanagan said. “And protecting the base.”

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Flanagan said the local community – and his department, which is comprised of paid and volunteer emergency responders – would not be impacted at all. While the Navy’s fire department’s apparatus were a common fixture at fire scenes in the lower end of Horsham Township, Willow Grove, Warminster and Abington are also regular responders and would continue in that role, he said. Flanagan said assistance from these departments, as well as Fort Washington and Hatboro, will keep the Horsham Fire Company’s 600 to 700 annual fire calls running smoothly.

“The mutual aid will pick it up,” Flanagan said. “We’ll get through it.”

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Robert Drennen, Upper Moreland’s Emergency Services director, said the air base’s fire department regularly responded to 10 of the township’s 60 box districts.

“We have to reconfigure our responses to include a fire company that’s further away,” Drennen said. “It’s like a ripple effect. It has more impact on companies that are a little further out.”

Depending on the location of the fire, Drennen said Upper Moreland will now rely more heavily on fire companies in Warminster or Lower Moreland.

Drennen said the notification came from air base personnel Monday night that, as of the following day, they would no longer be providing assistance outside of the military property.

“This has been discussed for months,” Drennen said. “It’s not a surprise.”

Mitch Shapiro, Warminster Fire Department’s chief, said he met with Flanagan on Tuesday to iron out a new response system, which, in short means Warminster crews will respond sooner to Horsham fire calls.

“Is the Navy base having a direct impact on us? Sure,” Shapiro said, adding that fire officials had thought the base’s fire department would be providing response support until next month. “We’re well prepared to pick up any slack from the Navy’s leaving.”

During the day, in particular, response times will be a bit longer without the Navy's paid firefighters available to assist, Shapiro said. 

Officials have said that the base’s firefighters trained to handle aircraft crashes would leave on April 1, in line with the last of the military planes, while the Navy’s fire department that handles building fires would be on hand through June 30.

While Flanagan said the impact of the base’s fire department departure would be virtually non-existent, he did acknowledge that the “relationship” his crew developed with the base has been invaluable.

“It’s very handy,” Flanagan said of the Navy crew’s emergency response assistance. “We’ve been spoiled by the fact that they’re plopped in the middle of our township.” 

With the base’s firefighters all but gone, Flanagan, and Horsham Township officials, are looking forward to another prospect on the horizon: taking ownership of the .

The Horsham Township Council voted last week to have Township Manager Bill Walker submit a notice of interest for the property. is the deadline for submitting applications to the Horsham Land Reuse Authority, the group charged with leading the airbase’s redevelopment. The HLRA will then decide which proposed uses make the best sense for the 892 acres available following the military’s departure in September and, from there, will devise a redevelopment plan.

Calling it a “strategic acquisition,” Flanagan said the base’s fire station, which is about 10 years old, could be useful in the decades ahead as the base property is redeveloped and as Horsham continues to grow.

“We don’t want to have to spend money to build one,” Flanagan said of a potential future fire station. “We may need it.”

Walker said it cost roughly $4 million to build Horsham’s two existing stations, on and on . Flanagan said Horsham has had two fire stations for Horsham Fire Co. since about 1960 or so.

From a “footprint” standpoint, Flanagan said the base’s fire station is larger than Horsham Fire Company’s larger building, on Meetinghouse Road, which has six bays as compared to the airbase’s eight bays. Both stations have offices, kitchen, bunks and equipment storage areas.

If the township becomes owner of the base’s fire station, Walker said one or several possibilities could work, including leasing the space out to Horsham Fire Co.; using the 20 bunks for the township’s maintenance department during long winter shifts spent plowing; or sharing the building with the county’s Department of Public Safety for storage of HazMat trucks.

“This almost 900 acres is about 8 percent to 9 percent of our total township. We have no idea what 10 percent of our town’s going to be in the future,” Walker said, adding that the township’s intent to acquire it is community planning for emergency services. “I don’t want to see it demolished, knocked down or anything else done with it.”


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