On a recent night when an earthquake rattled York County, prompting calls to 911, Dover Township firefighters overheard dispatchers sending police to a reported house explosion with fire in their coverage area.
Nine volunteers at the firehouse jumped up, put on their gear and figured out what equipment they needed. They pulled out of the station with the chief's vehicle, an engine and a tanker.
"We were a mile and a half down the road before we were formally dispatched," Dover Township Fire Chief Brian Widmayer said this week.
Fortunately, it turned out to be a pile of brush on fire. It was not a house explosion with fire, which some might have confused with the rumbling from the earthquake. But it's the latest example of the fire company not being dispatched in a timely manner, he said.
"York County keeps getting lucky," Widmayer said, noting that so far, there have not been serious injuries or deaths. "One of these days, it is going to happen, and who is going to be liable?"