New Kensington officials believe consolidating the city’s fire department operations can help weather a perfect storm of declining numbers of volunteers and an increase in the number and intensity of calls.

New Kensington Council approved recognizing the merger of Citizens Volunteer Fire Company No. 1 (at 785 Fourth Ave., downtown), New Kensington Volunteer Fire Department Engine No. 2 (at 422 Freeport St. in Parnassus) and Hilltop Hose Fire Company No. 3 (at 1045 Victoria Ave.) — all to be known as Citizens Volunteer Fire Company No. 1.

Fire Chief Ed Saliba plans to streamline operations by renovating the downtown station to accommodate bunk rooms for firefighters while using the Hilltop station for administrative purposes. He’ll recommend to city council that the Parnassus station property be sold.

“It doesn’t make sense for one station to come to a call with two or three people, another one with anywhere between three to six people,” Saliba said. “If everybody comes to one location, you can put more on an apparatus and get out the door.

“We’re trying to make our response times more efficient and make our operations more efficient as an organization.”

A decline in the membership across the departments has contributed to the merger, Saliba said.

“They talk about a possible crisis. It’s here, no matter where you go,” he said. “Pennsylvania has more fire departments than any state in the U.S.

“In the mid-’70s, there were about 300,000 volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania; now, there’s anywhere between 32,000 to 35,000 volunteers.”

There are five fire stations in New Kensington, all belonging to the New Kensington Bureau of Fire.

Stations 1, 2 and 3, which are the ones merging, have about 40 to 45 members total, Saliba said.

Stations 4 and 5 have about 20 each. Company 4 is between Strawn Avenue and Stewart Street; Company 5 is at 556 Camp Ave.

The merger is contingent on court approval. Saliba said the state Attorney General’s Office is handling that. A spokesman for that office declined to comment.

The public probably won’t notice a difference, Saliba said. The departments essentially have been operating out of Station 1 since August 2023, he said.

“Things have been working fairly well,” he said.

Improvements, already

A positive so far, Saliba said, is the departments are able to staff more firefighters to respond to calls. They’ve also decreased response times — which is vital because the number of calls has increased over the years, he said.

“At no point would there be an issue regarding response times,” Saliba said.

New Kensington Mayor Thomas Guzzo applauds the plan.

“This merger will be advantageous for both our firefighters as well as the community,” Guzzo said. “Centralizing will allow our firefighters, who do an amazing job, the ability to get to a scene more quickly. It will allow for more firefighters to be on an apparatus more quickly and efficiently.”

Calls increasing

This year alone, Station 1 has already responded to more than 400 calls, Saliba said, and has at least six volunteers at each alarm.

“If you had added up responses of the five stations in New Kensington in 1985, ’86; there were probably about 250 to 300 alarms back then,” Saliba said. “Today, as we speak, our fire department is pushing 900 calls combined across the companies.

“It’s not just New Kensington; it’s every municipality. It’s unbelievable, the call volumes are going crazy. In the last month, New Ken had a working building fire on East Hill Drive; Arnold had two working house fires we assisted with, and Lower Burrell had a house fire we assisted them with.”

The move would consolidate three buildings into two and centralize three companies into one. Saliba plans to sell some duplicate pieces of equipment.

He said renovating Station 1 will better facilitate fire operations and adding the bunk room will help with staffing.

Saliba also plans to talk with the Insurance Services Organization to get its recommendation on the merger plans. The ISO assesses a department’s capabilities and helps establish appropriate fire insurance premiums for property owners in the community.

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