With shortage of volunteers at crisis level, some Pennsylvania fire departments let members live in firehouses rent free

  • Source: The Morning Call
  • Published: 10/22/2020 12:00 AM

The lounge could pass for a college dorm, ignoring the vintage fire hats, canvass jackets and 1992 training record board hanging on the walls. Half-empty Gatorade bottles and binders sit on end tables next to plush couches the twenty-somethings who live there found on the side of a road. They’ve got a PlayStation system and a kitchenette that, admittedly, they don’t use often, opting for fast food instead. Inside the bunk room, a strobe light on the ceiling illuminates with a rapid high-pitched beep - but this light isn’t a prop for late-night parties. It alerts the volunteer firefighters who live there of a fire call. Within three minutes, live-in volunteers Jake Gallich, 22, Nick Bosga, 25, and Jake Serfass, 19, would be suited up and out the door of Fogelsville Volunteer Fire Co. in Upper Macungie Township.



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