shuttered in 2009
as a cost-cutting measure, allowing Mayor Jim Kenney to fulfill an original campaign promise three months before he leaves office. The reactivation, made possible by a $22.4 million federal grant announced this week, means that all seven companies that closed amid the recession will have been reopened. The companies will serve parts of Kensington, Fishtown, Fairmount, and South Philadelphia — areas that have seen growth over the last decade.
Fire Commissioner Adam K. Thiel said in a statement that the “critical funding” would enable the department to strengthen its emergency response by covering training and salary costs for 72 firefighters over the next three years. After that, the city will cover personnel costs. A timeline for reopening the companies — Engine 6 in Fishtown, Ladder 1 in North Philadelphia, and Ladder 11 in South Philadelphia — is still under development.“These companies being restored is where we should be,” said Mike Bresnan, president of Local 22 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, which represents firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics in the city. “It’s going to actually make the citizens of the city, and its firefighters, safer.
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