About Us
The North End Fire Company is the second independently chartered of the four volunteer fire companies in the Pine Grove Area. We share responsibility for fire protection in Pine Grove Borough and Washington Township and render mutual aid regularly to Pine Grove Township, Tremont Township and occasionally, Tremont Borough. This company enjoys a rich heritage of active membership coming from all walks of life; folks working in technical fields, professionals and civil service. Because the local fire companies do not benefit financially from a municipal levied fire tax, the members are tasked with raising the bulk of their operating costs and equipment replacement cost through various fund raising activities. To their credit, both Pine Grove Borough and Washington Township have recognized the efforts of these hard working volunteers and do provide financial assistance to this company annually; in the form of reimbursing apparatus maintenance and shouldering equipment fuel costs. The North End Fire Company has always prided itself on being able to demonstrate prudent stewardship of the funding provided by its patrons by utilizing older pieces of equipment that is still serviceable; repairing or altering it to suit our needs. For example; the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) gave us a Kaiser 5-ton military truck to use as a brush unit. The membership swung into action and installed the tanks, lights, siren, two way radios and pump. With the assistance of our friends at the Ravine Fire Company, a brush guard was welded to the front and the truck painted red. All totaled the project cost less than $500. This resulted in a joint forest fire fighting team---a partnership between Ravine Fire Company, North End Fire Company and the State DCNR.
Training has always been a priority of the North End Fire Company. Under the leadership of Past Chief, Gene Strouphauer, members were strongly encouraged to attend the county fire school. In fact, Gene believed in the necessity of having trained firefighters so much, he volunteered as the fire school treasurer and was instrumental in making the county fire school a reality. Today we continue that challenge: all our officers are certified to the level of fire fighter 1 by the state fire commissioner. The chief and his assistant are certified fire officer 1. Additionally, 8 other fire fighters are also state certified fire fighter 1.
As you browse around our newly updated website, you will see the last decade has been a period of extreme growth. As we look to the future, the challenges ahead continue to be demanding. We have seen run volume increase from 18 calls in 1987 to where we are as of December 7th, 2006: 145 calls. As the population of the community increases and the types of calls become more diverse and complex; through continued training and updating equipment, we will meet those demands. Take a look at our mission statement. If you feel you are up to challenge and this looks like a place you might want to belong, feel free to drop us an e-mail or stop by the fire house any Saturday morning. Visitors are always welcome. Finally, the membership would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters who make volunteer fire service possible. Your help but financial and otherwise is to be appreciated not only by the volunteers but the whole community that benefits from this free public service.