East Lansdowne council votes to close volunteer fire company after 114 years

It was an emotional night in East Lansdowne in Delaware County on Monday after the borough council voted to close its volunteer fire company that has served the community for 114 years.

“It’s an emotional time,” said Deputy Chief Steve Castellano, who joined the company 21 years ago as a cadet at age 14. “It’s not really about me, but the history of the organization. The number of people we’ve had over the years of 114 years of service.”

A lack of funding and low volunteer numbers — the company has only five members — were given as reasons for the closure.

Castellano said he wishes the fire company had more members and said that it used to not always have such low volunteer numbers.

“We would love to see that number at 15, 20, 30. When I joined 2004 we had 30, 35 active members, easily, in the fire company.,” Castellano said.

The borough’s mayor, Majovie Bland, said the fire company’s slow response time was also part of the problem.

“They were never first on scene in East Lansdowne to our knowledge for months,” Bland said told NBC10.

Despite the low volunteer numbers, the East Lansdowne Fire Company has seen its share of action. In Feb. 2024, they helped put out a house fire that turned out to have started after five family members were shot and killed during a domestic situation.

The fire station serves more than 2,700 people who live in East Lansdowne, and some residents showed up to Monday’s meeting to express their concerns about the incoming fire company change.

ill Stanton who expressed his concerns at Monday night’s borough meeting.

“My concern about this letter that I got on Friday was there nothing in there about financial information,” Will Stanton, a resident in East Lansdowne, said. “Nothing about what we’ve been paying and there’s nothing about what we will be paying.”

Borough officials say they will use the already established fire tax to pay neighboring fire departments to respond to emergency calls.

Lansdowne, Yeadon and Cardington Stonehurst fire companies are all about a mile away for East Lansdowne’s fire house.

But the mayor also said negotiations between the companies are still being worked out.

Meanwhile, the East Lansdowne Fire Company is asking for about $120,000 a year to stay operational, a price the mayor said will likely be higher and too much for the borough to afford.

“Make no mistake, we did the financial analysis,” Bland said. “We would have to raise taxes to our residents 60% to cover parttime.”

Castellano said the lack of funding has been an ongoing point of contention with the town, adding that the issue is not seclusive to East Lansdowne.

“It’s 10 years of requesting for funding falling on deaf ears and not receiving that funding,” he said. “This is not an issue just here in East Lansdowne, it’s a nationwide issue, especially with these smaller town fire departments.”

NBC10 asked the mayor what will become of the fire station and equipment.

He said they are not sure yet, but that’s something they will be looking into.

The East Lansdowne Fire Company will cease operations on Dec. 31, 2025.