Darby Township, PA, Officials Shut Down Fire Department, Take Apparatus

Goodwill Fire Company members were having a meeting last week when things took a surprising turn.

"They hit the clickers and raised all the overhead doors and here's the cops," Goodwill Interim President Dan Assal told 6abc. 

"'What are you doing?' 'We're taking your trucks.' 'Why?' 'You don't need to know,'" Assal said, recalling the conversation. "And it was like an armed camp."

The township owns the two rigs they took. One was found at the Sharon Hill Fire Department while another was in a parking lot. 

Township officials wrote in a statement they took the action following "the inability of the all-volunteer fire company to adequately respond to service calls with fully trained and certified operations and engineers with the fire apparatus in use at the station."

Assal said the company has about a dozen personnel.

"We need firefighters like every fire company around us. We're all struggling for the same pool of people."

The Darby Township Volunteer Fire Company remains in service.