Pleasant Hills VFC honors Tom Bonura for 50 years of active service

Fighting fires is a family affair for the Bonura family of Pleasant Hills.

All tallied, they’ve spent 230 years volunteering with the Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company.

Tom Bonura, 68, recently celebrated 50 years of active firefighting at the company.

“It’s exciting,” Bonura said of serving as a volunteer fireman. “It’s amazing – all of the things that we got involved with, seeing all of the good things that we did and handling tragedies as they came by.”

Bonura, who serves as a lieutenant and chairman of the board of directors, was recently recognized at the fire company’s installation banquet by local and state leaders for his years of service.

The Bonuras became involved with the Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company in the 1960s.

It was Tom’s brother, Mike, who first joined the company’s junior program.

His dad, Peter, became interested in what kept his son’s attention and all of the ambition that he had. So, he joined too.

When Tom turned 18, he knew “this is where I want to be, too,” he said.

There was something about the excitement they were experiencing and the camaraderie between firefighters that made him want to join. His brother George also joined.

“It seemed like the whole neighborhood was joining at the time,” Tom said.

He dove right in, and for the last 43 years has been a state fire inspector.

“It ended up being more of an avocation and eventually when I retired from Verizon, it became a career because now I’m doing training and fire inspections at health care facilities,” he said.

Tom, who has held nearly every position from assistant chief to business manager, has seen a lot of changes at the company over the decades.

While Pleasant Hills was considered a “pretty aggressive” fire company at the time, 50 years ago, it only had four air packs, or self-contained breathing apparatuses. Today, nearly every firefighter has one and they even have spare cylinders so they can go back into a fire with a fresh pack if they’ve used all of their air.

The fire company also had roughly two radios back in the day. Today, every firefighter has one so that they can communicate.

While firefighters still wear pagers, today they get alerts about calls on via an app on their phone. They can be out of the country — which Bonura said has happened — and know exactly what’s going on here.

“The turnout gear was basically a glorified raincoat back then, and today it’s totally encapsulating and high tech to keep us cool in the bad stuff and, like this morning, it kept us warm when someone crashed into a utility pole,” he said.

After 50 years of active firefighting, Tom still goes into buildings to fight fires. He estimates that he makes it to roughly 50 percent of the fire company’s 300 annual calls.

Even his wife, Lois, is a member. And their oldest son serves as a deputy fire chief at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport.

“It’s been contagious,” Bonura said. “People have different hobbies and this has been what filled our life.”

Even when on vacation, the family would stop at firefighter conventions to check-out the latest and greatest equipment and bring ideas back to Pleasant Hills.

Bonura not only helps firefighters in Pleasant Hills but as a state fire instructor, he has trained close to 10,000 people. He’s eligible to teach roughly 40 different classes.

Today, he mostly teaches hazardous materials and entry-level firefighting classes, along with a safety officer class and incident command training.

Looking back, Bonura says he’s responded to some “ugly scenarios.” That includes a large fire in McKeesport or the largest fire Pleasant Hills has ever seen when K-Mart caught fire in 1999.

Pleasant Hills has been fortunate with the borough supporting much of the fire company’s costs.

That allows firefighters to focus on training.

Mike Thatcher, who serves as the magisterial district judge in the area and a member of Pleasant Hills Volunteer Fire Company, spoke highly of Bonura.

“He’s 68 and he still puts on an air pack and will go into a fire,” Thatcher said. “When you think about it, to spend 50 years of your life interrupting dinners or getting up in the middle of the night to help someone in your community,” that’s how Bonura has lived his life and that’s what stands out to other firefighters — his longevity and commitment to the community.