By Rohan Anne, Co-Webmaster

Over the past two years, the Berwyn Fire Company and Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors met on Zoom to discuss the plans to construct two new fire stations in the township. These stations will be complete rebuilds of the main fire station at 23 Bridge Ave. and its substation near Gateway Shopping Center. In rebuilding the stations, the township’s intent is to improve the efficiency and quality of the Berwyn Fire Company.

Julie Gosse, chair of the Tredyffrin Supervisors, believes that the fire company needs the new stations to shorten medical response times in the district.

“Our fire companies provide not just our fire protection, but they’re also our first responders for emergency medical needs,” Gosse said. “It’s important to have the infrastructure in place in order to have top-notch fire and emergency medical services.”

The Berwyn Fire Company will rebuild its main station and create a substation at 1100 West Valley Road from where it has currently been operating outside in a tent. It will take at least three years for the construction to be completed according to Berwyn EMS captain Michael Baskin.

“For the main station, we should be tearing down the current building this spring, and it’ll take about 15 months to do the whole project,” Baskin said. “For our substation, we purchased the Boy Scouts property at the corner of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and Valley Forge Road, and in the next three to five years, we’ll build an actual fire station down there on that property.”

The Berwyn Fire Company consists of both paid and volunteer staff, and volunteers can take multiple jobs at the fire department. The company does not plan to make large changes to its staff since it is only rebuilding stations and not moving. According to Goose, once its current main station is fully renovated, there will not be an immediate change in staffing numbers.

While these stations may not bring staffing changes, the new facilities and equipment will have effects on the fire company. The current main station on Bridge Avenue was built in 1929 and was not created to work with modern technology or the internet. The full renovation of the building and the addition of a new substation will allow for the latest technology and communications equipment. 

Senior Taha Chomewala, an EMT student through the Allied Health program, believes that this improvement of communication technology will improve the efficiency of the Berwyn Fire Company.

“I feel like communication is definitely going to be better because there will be less pressure on just one fire company responding to multiple calls in a day. Right now, Berwyn Fire Company is probably having around 10 to 15 daily fire calls, and expanding (the station) and letting them have a renovated space will allow the company to focus and improve communication,” Chomewala said.

The Berwyn Fire Company built the three different sections of the current station in different decades, which causes some structural problems for the fire department, such as the garage door not accommodating taller ambulances. According to Baskin, the new stations will also provide a better working space and allow the fire company to meet current and future needs.

“Being able to build from scratch rather than keep doing renovation gives us the ability to really plan it out and make the rooms work for us,” Baskin said. “We already know the way we operate, so everything that we’re going to build is going to help us and make us more efficient.”

Rohan Anne can be reached at [email protected].