A windy and dry Saturday welcomed Meteorological Spring, and a busy 24 hour stretch for the LPFD.

During the 24-hour period of 1am Saturday to 1am Sunday, LPFD members handled over 10 calls for service. During this time, the LPFD maintained staffing of at least 10 members to ensure proper coverage of the township and surrounding communities.

The first call of the tour was dispatched at 1:40am for a dwelling fire response to Norristown Borough. Quint 27 arrived and found smoke showing and discovered a small fire in a second-floor bedroom. Tower 53 made the response and arrived as the first due truck, assisting with overhaul of the fire area before being released.

As the winds picked up and the dry air moved in, the department handled numerous weather-related calls throughout the day including electrical fires, fire alarms, building fires, and brush fires. At 12:05pm, Field 53 was requested to assist Jefferson Fire Company on a brush fire involving multiple sheds, a fence and brush. Members assisted with extinguishing the fire and overhaul before taking up after about an hour and a half.

At 5:45pm, Field 53 was requested to assist Barren Hill Volunteer Fire Company with a large brush fire in Fort Washington State Park. Units had a large area of brush on fire and spreading in a heavily wooded area after a power line failure. Field 53 and BC53-1 made the response to assist. Field 53 arrived and was assigned to make access to the area via a trailway. Once in position, members performed extinguishment and overhaul tasks while BC53-1 assisted with Incident Command for approximately 2 hours.

As members were finally getting some rest, the department was dispatched to an electrical fire on Gertrude Avenue in the Pawling’s section of the township at 11pm. Engine, Squad and BC53-1 arrived to find multiple trees down on primary lines in the area. Fire was in the vicinity of one of the trees down necessitating the need for PECO Electric to respond before extinguishment could be completed. Members stood by until approximately 2am when PECO arrived to secure power