Decertified PA Station's Chief, Firefighters Blast Board over Closing

PLYMOUTH TOWNSHIP, PA—Monday night’s Plymouth Township Board of Supervisors meeting turned into a heated debate over the decertified Tilbury Fire Station in the wake of last week’s blaze at the Flamingo Diner.

Fire Chief Barry Lore spoke out about the closing of the station joined by a group of his fellow volunteer firefighters, some of whom offered their own comments.

In 2019, the Board of Supervisors voted to decertify the Tilbury station in the midst of a funding issue. Firefighters are still angry about the issue, and have been arguing to have the station reinstated.

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“What’s bothering me is that we failed to continue neogtiations,” Lore said. “This needs to be a forever negotiation.”

The meeting was led by Township Supervisor Gale Conrad, who conducted other business before turning it over to attorney and township solicitor James Mangan, who opened up the floor to public comment about the fire company.

Mangan also made it a point to say that the matter of the decertification was closed and not open for discussion.

Lore was first to the podium, and took exception to the fact that Conrad and the rest of the board voted to close the station, saying that the township still needs the company.

“You’re taking away a resource that is still here for this town,” Lore said.

Things quickly grew tense between Lore and Conrad, and the rest of the crowd started to chime in before Conrad re-took order of the meeting.

Additional comments were added by fellow firefighters Francis O’Looney and Tom Deretchin.

“You’re not getting the service from other companies that you used to get here,” Deretchin said.

O’Looney criticized Conrad for deferring to Mangan on some points.

“Why are you hiding behind your attorney?” O’Looney asked. “What are you afraid of?”

Lore and the rest of the firefighters said response time of surrounding stations to the Flamingo Diner fire was slower than it would have been if Tilbury Station had been allowed to report to the scene.

Conrad read from a letter posted on Facebook from one of the co-leasers of the diner, praising the Nanticoke firefighters for their quick response and for saving the building from burning completely to the ground.

In addition, Conrad had told the Times Leader previously that a slow response time to three separate Plymouth Township structure fires was one of the contributing factors to the station being closed.

During the meeting, the question was raised as to how much money was budgeted to the surrounding fire companies. Conrad said that the township budgeted $30,000 for the companies that serve Plymouth Township.

This drew laughs from a majority of the residents in attendance.

Multiple times, Conrad had to use her gavel or cut speakers off before things got too unruly. She did reiterate her “never say never again” position that she had said in the past.

“It’s like when you have a childhood friend, and you tell them you’re never going to talk to them again and then two weeks later you’re back to being friends,” Conrad said.

Firefighters and residents alike were visibly frustrated at meeting’s end.

“This is what we’re up against,” O’Looney said. “But we’re not going anywhere.”

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