Community Corner

Royersford's Rescue 98 Gets a New Home

The truck is being donated to a hurricane-affected fire department in New York.

Royersford Fire Company's 1981 Ford C8000 rescue truck has seen three decades of borough history go by. 

Now, Rescue 98 is moving from its Green Street parking lot to a fire department garage in Island Park, New York. 

David Hummel of the Royersford Fire Department told Patch that Rescue 98 is being donated to the Island Park Fire Department, along with hoses and other badly-needed firefighting gear.

Find out what's happening in Limerick-Royersford-Spring Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Island Park is a town wiped out by Hurricane Sandy and their firefighters, along with several other fire departments on Long Island, are desperately in need of equipment so they can continue serving their town.

Rescue 98 was put up for sale after the 2011 Humane and Friendship Fire Companies merger. After the Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund sent out a call for equipment to all its chapters, the department decided to donate the truck and additional gear.

Find out what's happening in Limerick-Royersford-Spring Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Hummel said the department found out about Island Park's needs through the Pennsylvania chapter of the Terry Fund. 

Last year, the fund organized a truck donation from Washington Fire Company No. 1 in Conshohocken to a rural Alabama fire department that was operating without an apparatus of any kind.

Washington's Captain Mike Maxwell said that a large drive organized by the fund will provide equipment to several Long Island fire companies whose equipment was damaged during the storm.

"These guys [from Long Island] donated trucks of equipment to departments who needed it after the [Midwest] tornadoes last year," Maxwell said. "It's their turn to receive something after everything they've given."

Maxwell said they have received equipment donations from companies all over Pennsylvania. A company outside Pittsburgh is also donating a truck to a Long Island company. 

The Terry Fund is also collecting supplies on Saturday from 8am to 8pm at the Metroplex shopping center on Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting. 

"It'll all go to Island Park and be distributed from there," Hummel said. 

Maxwell said he was thrilled at the response he'd gotten. 

"It started small and has just exploded," Maxwell said. "I'm anxious to see what Saturday brings."

Several Royersford firefighters will drive Rescue 98 to its new home on Sunday, Hummel said.

A convoy will leave from Plymouth Meeting early Sunday morning, and by mid-afternoon Rescue 98 will arrive in its new home in Nassau County, New York.  


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here