After decades of talk, new $1.8 million fire station dedicated in Bradenville

Anyone who wonders what a monumental occasion the completion of Derry Township’s new fire station in Bradenville means to the community only needs to meet lifetime township firefighter Brian Balega.

Balega, 51, is now a retired fire investigator from the Anchorage (Alaska) Fire Department. But he traveled 4,000-miles to his native Western Pennsylvania to join his firefighting brothers in Bradenville, where he learned the ropes.

He wanted to be there Saturday when the department finally dedicated its new $1.8 million fire station on School Street.

“I’ve been a member since I was a teenager at Derry Area High School in the 1980s, and they were talking about a new fire station back then. It’s fantastic it finally got done, and I’m really glad to be here to see it,” said Balega, as he snapped photographs of a 1-year-old relative, Tred Tedesco, at the steering wheel of one the department’s fire engines parked outside the fire house.

Fire Chief Mark Piantine said he is elated Balega made the 4,000-plus-mile trip. But he added it is just another example of the department members’ dedication that culminated with Saturday’s dedication of the nearly 12,000-square-foot building.

Piantine joined the department in 1974 and has been fire chief for 20 years. He said the fire station was discussed and planned for decades before ground finally was broken for it in 2020. Firefighters moved into the building Feb. 28.

The new digs

The fire station has two floors.

The first floor contains executive and other offices, a communications room and five bays for the department’s engine, rescue truck, attack truck, squad truck, brush truck, tanker and a utility terrain vehicle. There’s also a decontamination room.

Also housed on the first floor is a washroom and dryer for gear and hose washing, 44 lockers, a water rescue equipment room, a breathing air room to fill tanks, hose storage and portable pump rooms, a tool storage room and a multipurpose room with a kitchen for training and meetings.

The second floor mezzanine is home to a gym for department members. It eventually will have two male and two female bunk rooms, male and female showers, a training room and a kitchen.

He said the department has worked for years out of two smaller buildings. The new School Street building is three times the size of the existing, cramped hall that had only two bays.

“We used to have to jockey vehicles in and out at the old station,” Piantine said. “Now the trucks have designated spots.”

The department’s former facility was a block away on High Street and originally was built by members in 1949 as a community center. It later was taken over as the fire station.

Fifty-year firefighter and former Bradenville fire Chief Vince “Tobe” Cackowski, who joined the department in 1972, said a new building has been talked about since he became a member.

“There was talk and plans, but it always seemed to fall through,” he said.

Cackowski said it’s been needed a long time.

The department covers 105 square miles that has about 14,500 residents. During this week’s windy stormfront that blew through the county Tuesday into Wednesday, Piantine said the department responded to two dozen calls.

“It’s great it’s finally come through,” he said.

Balega agreed.

“The fire department deserves it, and the community deserves it. I’m happy for them,” he said.

The department received a nearly $750,000 grant for the project through Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program in 2020. A grant writer retained by the township helped with the application for that money and for additional department funds totaling another $500,000.

A low-interest loan covered the rest.

The department fleet includes six trucks, along with an all-terrain utility task vehicle and three boats.

The station was constructed by TBI Contracting of McKeesport and designed by Tom Harley of UpStreet Architects Inc. of Indiana, Indiana County.