LANCASTER, Pa. — The closure of Lancaster City Fire Station No. 6 went into effect this week, a firefighters union in the city announced on Facebook.
Lancaster Professional Firefighters IAFF Local 319 called the closure "an end to an era," and said Station No. 6 "is the last legitimate fire house that the City of Lancaster will ever have."
The statement criticized "bad decisions" made by "people that were only out to make a name for themselves and to stoke their egos" for the closure, which was announced by Lancaster Mayor Danine Sorace, Police Chief Richard Mendez and Fire Chief Todd Hutchinson at a press conference in September.
During that same press conference, Sorace announced that the Lancaster Bureau of Police's Mounted Patrol Unit was also being disbanded.
“We have a responsibility to our residents to have top-of-the-line fire and police response while also being responsible stewards of tax dollars. Both announcements today will help the City of Lancaster increase efficiency and maintain our high standard of public safety,” Sorace said in the press conference.
The horses in the police department's mounted unit were transferred to New Jersey State Police, it was announced late last year.
The decision to close Station No. 6, located on Fremont Street, went into effect on Jan. 1.
"Firehouses are traditionally meant to be small community hubs," the union's Facebook post says. "Safe places where anyone can go to for help, or for good stories 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s the safe place where a lost child knows how to find to get assistance in finding their way home. It’s the place that elderly residents go to for assistance in changing that stubborn smoke detector battery that keeps chirping all night long, or for opening the jar of jelly that was seemingly secured by someone possessing superhuman powers. For lack of a better term, a firehouse is an extended family of the neighborhood."
