The Duncannon Fire Company No. 1 has earned a $15,000 Safety First grant from Norfolk Southern. Byron Worner, Fire Chief of the Duncannon Fire Company, has been volunteering for over 40 years. The funds will be used to purchase new gear so the fire team will have essential protective gear needed when responding to emergencies.

Maintaining a volunteer fire company is not easy.

“The whole the whole thing, from bottom to top, from funding coming into your base. Your administrative staff here are all volunteers. The Duncannon Fire Company is 100% volunteer. So, everybody that does anything at the firehouse receives no compensation for their jobs. So we do everything that any organization or type of business does from providing the base, which is your administration, your secretary, your treasurer, your, you know, you’re and you have your work staff, which is your firefighters, and you have support staff also, which could be just, social members who just come around and do things outside of getting on the fire trucks and go on calls. And then you have your firefighters and then Your administrative staff. I said that with your, executive board, but then your, operations staff, which is your, line officers, your two lieutenants, captains, assistant chiefs, and the chief.”

The Safety First Grant program is designed to promote overall community safety across Norfolk Southern’s 22-state network. The Duncannon Fire Company is always looking to add volunteers to the program. Worner says being a volunteer has so many benefits.

"it's gratifying and you give back to your community every year. That thrown around a lot. But seriously, it is giving back to your community because you are doing a job that and not taking a salary. So every volunteer at Duncannon Fire Company is basically saving the municipalities. You know, probably 80 to $100,000 a year. So you add that up times, you know, 20 or so. You know the number, and it's saving people a ton of money. And once, once that goes by the wayside, the people are going to know what they're going to have an appreciation for what the volunteer firefighters provided them."

 

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