That day almost three decades ago is indelibly etched in Pine Township Fire Company Chief Keith Muir’s memory, one that had some wondering if the department had a tomorrow.
It was Jan. 31, 1991, when a fire broke out in Station 570 itself, a blaze that gutted the equipment storage room and garage and forced frantic firefighters to hastily roll the department’s five firetrucks out into the cold before they were damaged.
Emotional firefighters that day vowed to rebuild, and they did. With their restored base of operations, Pine Township VFC was revived. It thrived, and in the following years enjoyed days so strong in support with “more people than we knew what to do with,” as Muir recalled this morning.
Today, though, Station 570’s very existence is threatened by a trouble they wouldn’t have imagined just 10 years ago.