Two historic South Lebanon fire companies merge, claim no change to service

Two historic South Lebanon fire companies have officially merged into one company.

Hebron Hose Co. No. 1 and Citizens Fire Co. of Avon, both established in 1905, officially merged Friday to become the South Lebanon Fire Co. No. 1.

The idea for the merger began after a water pipe broke at the Avon fire station at 1220 King St. in 2016.

“The firehouse was very old to begin with and needed a lot of repairs,” Matthew Rogers, the president of the South Lebanon Fire Co. and former president of Hebron Hose Fire Co., said. “Because it was winter, we had some open bays at Hebron, so we said, ‘Just come on up,’ with the intent it was going to be short term.”

Avon was down to only three or four active members at the time, and they were welcomed in with Hebron’s 30 members.

“They were there for three or four months and the firetrucks from Avon started leaving the station with six or eight people on them instead of one or two,” Rogers said. “Their leadership thought it was a good idea, plus we’re less than a mile from their old firehouse, so the response times really didn’t change.”

The Avon station was put up for sale Friday once the merger was made official.

The merger, which required approval from the county and the state as well as from South Lebanon Township, will also save the newly merged company money.

“Now you have one company maintaining their own building, their own trucks, their own insurance, all under one roof for a savings of almost 50 percent because we’re not insuring two (of everything),” Rogers said. There were so many things that were duplicated by having two different companies.”

And more cost savings may be in store since South Lebanon Fire Co. finds itself with two pump engine apparatus when it really only needs one, according to Rogers.

“We can get rid of that engine and still provide the same service to the community because we have other neighboring communities that come when there is a big fire,” Rogers said. “It’s not like you’re going to short the community a piece of apparatus if it’s a big fire.” 

The new company also runs a ladder truck, which belonged to Hebron, and a brush truck that came from Avon.

Overall, the process of merging the two companies went very well, according to Rogers, who said that sometimes such mergers can be contentious.

“The guys who have been a part of that unit have been nothing but pleasurable to work with, and their goal is to improve services for the community and do what’s best for the public,” he said. “Because of that things went very well.”

Several other fire companies in the county have merged over the past several years, including Greenpoint and Lickdale who merged to become the Northern Lebanon Fire and Emergency Services in 2014, and North Cornwall, Quentin and Cornwall fire companies in 2016. 

Annville’s Union Hose Fire Co. and the Cleona Fire Co. were working on a merger in 2017, but that has not yet been made official.

South Lebanon Township has two other fire companies: the Prescott Community Fire Co. and the Friendship Fire Co.

This story comes to us through a partnership between WITF and The Lebanon Daily News.