Standby & Response to the City of Reading

Being right outside the city of Reading, the West Reading Fire Department is often put on standby, and sometimes even called to respond into the city, when city fire apparatus are tied up on another major incident. It seems that a major fire occurs at the infamous Reading Chain & Cable building at least once every year. However, this night was different. An arsonist set the Chain & Cable building on fire, then traveled throughout the city setting other fires. West Reading was called in to handle one of those fires.

Flames shoot through the roof of the Chain & Cable building. This devastating fire kept city firefighters busy for hours.

While the city is busy, we're on standby waiting to be called into action if the city should need additional help, or if another incident should occur in the city. Unfortunately, there's little to do while we're waiting for something to happen.

Another fire has erupted in another part of the city. West Reading is called in to extinguish this new threat to life, limb and personal property. While the firefighters do their job on the fire scene, Fire Police Lieutenant Rick Wilkes does his job, which is to close the road to ensure the safety of the firefighters and apparatus beyond him.

After working hard for a matter of hours to extinguish the stubborn fire, firefighter Tim Green is exhausted.

But the work is not done just because the fire is out! The dirty hose which was used on that fire was washed, and clean dry hose is packed onto the ladder truck to replace it.

Firefighters need to work from both sides of the truck to get the fresh hose properly packed and ready to be used again on a moment's notice.

Everything gets dirty in a fire. Every piece of equipment has to be cleaned and prepared to be used at the next emergency, which could happen at any time. Firefighter Ronald Adams is shown here drying the masks which are worn with our breathing apparatus.

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