Penn Hills council votes to close fire station

A Penn Hills fire station that has been operating for more than 50 years will close Friday.

Council voted 4-0 last week to decertify Universal Fire Department 226 on Main Street, which provides coverage from Saltsburg to Stotler roads. Mayor Sara Kuhn was not at the meeting.

“They just don't have the manpower,” said Penn Hills Fire Marshal Chuck Miller.

Miller said the station's chief, mayor, and municipal manager discussed closing the department before the council's vote made it official. The department has seven members, but two of them are on medical leave.

“It was a mutual decision,” Miller said. “You can't effectively run a fire company with five people. At least three of them have to be on the truck, and you're asking for about 60 percent of your guys to be there at any given time.”

North Bessemer Volunteer Fire Department Station 223 and Penn 7 Volunteer Fire Department Station 227 will take over coverage of Universal's district. Both departments routinely assist with responses in that district.

Miller said he doesn't expect response times to be affected by the closure of Universal, which covers the least populated district in the municipality. The district has about 200 homes and the defunct Atlas Cement Plant.

Firefighters from Universal will be deployed in the municipality's six other departments, Miller said.

The decision to close the department comes after three years of consideration, during which volunteer firefighter numbers remained low.

“This was a hard decision for the chief. When you do this for so long, it's tough. At the end of the day, he knew it was the right decision for his people and the citizens of Penn Hills,” Miller said. “The last thing we want to see is an injury or death because of a lack of manpower.”

Samson X Horne is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7845 or shorne@tribweb.com.