Just a little view into what YOUR Gladwyne Firefighters did this Holiday weekend……

A normal Christmas Eve preparation starts on 12/23 when our Volunteers head out at 10 pm to place Santa Signs all over the Community announcing the time that Santa will arrive on Christmas Eve aboard a Gladwyne Fire Truck….

This weekend, we instead started by helping a community member extinguishing a fire in their house. During the fire we also assisted another neighbor who had high levels of Carbon Monoxide in their house from a generator that was operating too close to the house. After finishing those two calls we returned to the station to defrost our gear, hose and members who spent 4 hours in 9 degree weather. Just after midnight we were dispatched to a fire alarm which was cleared without incident. At 0127 (am) our Firefighters were sent to a CO Alarm which fortunately was a malfunctioning alarm. At 0326 (am) our Firefighters were dispatched to the expressway for a serious accident (photo included), but as they were getting ready to leave the station they discovered that the sewer had frozen and backed up into the firehouse. While the Engine crew handled the Expressway incident, additional volunteers started to clean up the firehouse. The back up was so bad that we had to call SERVPRO in to assist us and have removed all of the carpet and tiles in the community room.

At 0800 hours (2 hours after finishing cleaning up) your Gladwyne Firefighters met at the station to bag up all of the apples and oranges for our Annual Santa Run that would start at 530 pm. Crews were finally able to post the Santa signs in the Community announcing Santa’s arrival around 1000 am. In between Santa preparations, we responded to an addtional call for a Natural gas leak and miraculously, we pulled off the Santa run without a hitch.

At Midnight on Christmas morning we were dispatched to assist Bryn Mawr with a House fire, but were quickly recalled as they extinguished the fire quickly.

And finally, at a little after 1100 (am) on Christmas morning there was another house fire in Gladwyne. Our Firefighters again responded and extinguished a small fire in the attic of another Community member.

Ultimately, YOUR Gladwyne Firefighters handled 10 calls (3 of which were significant) in a 36 hour period between 6pm on Friday 12/23 and 1200 on Sunday 12/25, dealt with a sewer back up in the firehouse and delivered Santa to our Community.

Please be sure to show your support and gratitude to all of our Volunteer Firefighters and Career Staff members who dedicated themselves to our Community this holiday weekend.

Be proud of all of them, because I am………

Blaine Leis, Chief
Gladwyne Fire Company