Fire Department Mount Joy

Station 7-5

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

About  FDMJ

Fire Department Mount Joy is an all volunteer organization located in Northwest Lancaster County, PA, that provides fire and rescue services to all of Mount Joy Borough and portions of East Donegal, Mount Joy and Rapho Townships, encompassing 28 square miles with a population of approximately 10,790 residents and 5810 land parcels (residential, business and agriculture). We also protect 4 miles of state route 283, 6 miles of state route 230 and 6 miles of the mainline railway.

We consistently place in the top ten of busiest Lancaster County Fire Departments, placing 6^th for 2008 with 682 incidents.

Our first due response is very diverse consisting of densely populated areas of the borough, suburban style developments, commercial/industrial areas and parks, and vast rural farm land.

We also regularly provide and receive mutual aid service to the following departments;

Rheems, Elizabethtown, Marietta, Maytown/East Donegal, Columbia, Bainbridge, Matersonville, Manheim, Hempfield, West Hempfield, Rhorerstown and East Petersburg.

Fire Department Mount Joy is a combination the former Friendship Fire Company (organized 1868) and the Florin Fire Company (organized 1947) which merged in 2001. We operate out of one station located at 111 New Haven Street in Mount Joy and operate a fleet of 8 units;

• 1 - 2000 GPM Engine
• 1 - 1750 GPM Rescue/Engine
• 1 - 100’ Ladder Truck
• 1 - Traffic Unit
• 1 - Utility Pick-up
• 2 - Duty Chief/Officer Vehicles (SUV’s)

We are funded through various sources within the community we serve and strive to provide the most efficient service within these resources.

• Annual fund drive mailing to 5810 residential and business address in our district
• The 4 municipalities we serve contribute general fund resources to our operational and capital budgets (Mount Joy Borough also provides workers compensations insurance)
• The 4 municipalities we serve disperse Pennsylvania Act 84 Funds to our Relief Association
• We actively pursue private, state and federal grants sources
• The Fire Police hold several fundraising events throughout the year to support projects

Training

Fire Department Mount Joy, as well as the former Florin and Friendship companies, takes great pride in its dedication to the training of its members. This serves to goals, providing competent firefighters to handle our citizen’s needs as well as the safety of our personnel.

We currently hold in-house training sessions every Monday night (except 2^nd Monday of month which is the business meeting) that covers various topics to provide skill enhancement opportunities.

Our firefighters also attend training sessions and seminars at various other locations to include; Lancaster County Public Safety Training Center, Harrisburg Area Community College, Bucks County Community College, Pennsylvania Fire Academy, National Fire Academy and various online resources.

We maintain a ride qualification system that provides a systematic pathway of training and certification of firefighters to ride the various apparatus in our fleet. This is a tiered system and includes the completion of certain state certified courses and a task book of apparatus specific skills. Levels include;

• Trainee
• Engine Company
• Intermediate
• Truck Company
• Rescue Company
• Technical Rescue

Additionally firefighters interested in becoming driver/operators of the apparatus must complete a series of classes and completion of driving and tasks related to the individual apparatus.

All firefighters must maintain annual requirements of certain certifications to remain as qualified, this includes;

• Current CPR, AED, Blood Bourne Pathogens and Medical Certification
• Hazardous Materials Certification (Awareness for Fire Police, Operations for Firefighters)
• SCBA/RIT Re-fresher
• 6 calls and 6 hours of training every 6 months

All members are required to complete training on the National Incident Management System (NIMS) in accordance to their position held.

Fire Department Mount Joy is registered with the State Fire Commissioners office as a Participating Department in the Volunteer Certification Program to the Bronze level for having at least 50% of our firefighters Certified to Firefighter I. We currently have 22 Nationally Certified Firefighter I, however many members have continued to complete numerous certifications in officer, inspector, instructor, driver/operator and technical rescue levels.

If you are interested in joining, follow this link to the New Member Application page.