Bristol Township Council Thursday night voted to eliminate Newportville Fire Company from the emergency services rotation in a 5 to 2 vote after an emotionally charged meeting.
Council President Craig Bowen along with Councilman Raymond Blalock voted against amending the ordinance which now ends the 99-year relationship with the township for the fire company and decreases the number of volunteer fire companies serving the municipality from five to four.
The vote came about two hours into the meeting after ardent and vociferous supporters made their individual cases to Council during the public hearing.
Township Manager Randee Mazur (Ordinance Presentation Restructuring Bristol Township’s Fire Districts PPT) highlighted the timeline and issues from officials’ perspective. Mazur provided Newportville arrival times for their “first due” for working fire incidents, showing they were first only four times out of 24 covering approximately a 10-year time frame.
Credit” YouTube Screenshot
According to the data presented by Mazur, NFC first responders “relied heavily” on Bristol Township Fire and Rescue and that their no response calls more than doubled from 2024 to 2025.
The lively group of meeting attendees, every once in a while, shouted questions at township officials, demanding “more time” to research for themselves the issues and why Council members had a resolution before them to essentially shut down its operations in Bristol.
Several Newportville area residents said they had only just heard about the vote to close down the almost century-old fire company.
NFC supporters addressing Council at Thursday night’s meeting
Credit: YouTube Screenshot
“It was news to me,” one resident said.
She challenged council to explain how eliminating NFC fire protection services would help and not harm residents.
NFC supporters addressing Council at Thursday night’s meeting
Credit: YouTube Screenshot
NFC supporters addressing Council at Thursday night’s meeting
Credit: YouTube Screenshot
NFC supporters addressing Council at Thursday night’s meeting
Credit: YouTube Screenshot
Several times Council members and attendees exchanged heated words but cooler heads prevailed.
NFC supporters implored township officials to continue seeking resolutions instead of removing the fire company from the emergency services rotation. However, since balking at consolidation and merger discussions, those options went by the wayside once a deadline passed in June.
Credit: YouTube Screenshot
NFC supporters pointed out representatives from the four other volunteer fire companies were not in attendance at last night’s meeting. Councilman Patrick Antonello said aloud, have any of you asked yourselves why that is?
Two fire companies have voted against merging and/or consolidating with NFC when asked. The remaining volunteer fire companies did not want to work with them, officials have said.
Every person that came up to the podium spoke in support of keeping the firehouse open.
NFC Firefighters begin to head for the doors as an apparent dispatch came in during last night’s meeting,.
While Deputy Chief Ryan Cummings was at the lectern speaking, the fire company was dispatched to a call. As alerts went off, and firefighters hurriedly made their way to the call, a thunderous round of clapping overtook the meeting room. It couldn’t have been better scripted, if only the ending was true to Hollywood with everyone going home happy, but that wasn’t to be.
As of midnight last night NFC was removed from the call rotation and are now being replaced by the next closest fire company, officials said even though last night’s decision is not supposed to go into effect for 30 days.
Third District Fire Company which is 1.2 miles away from the NFC firehouse on Bath Road is expected to pick up a majority of NFC’s first due calls.
Fire officials told Lower Bucks Source duty crews are expected to be implemented by the remaining fire volunteer fire companies on overnights and weekends with career first responder staff picking up during weekday daytime hours.
Credit: Bristol Township
Bowen, Antonello, and Councilman Joe Glasson took questions from the media after the meeting, most of which were focused on new information from ex-NFC Firechief Fred Black’s Wednesday court hearing, in which it was revealed officials were aware as far back as 2022 there were financial discrepancies, not 2024.
Glasson, who served as a firefighter with Levittown Fire Company #2 said voting to close a fire company is the hardest thing he’s had to do in his time on Council.
“We did everything we could to stop this from happening.”
NFC President Walt Prickett published a post on Facebook that ended in part with “We’re not done yet” (Full Post below)
Editor’s Note I: Bensalem Township and Bristol Borough consolidated their volunteer fire companies over the last three years in order to pool their resources and implement them in the best possible ways, officials said.
Editor’s Note 2: Below is a link to the Township presentation reviewing its reasoning to reduce the number of fire companies serving the municipality from five to four.
It must be noted NFC provided informational packets to meeting attendees and officials outlining their arguments to remain open and in some instances disagree with the officials on certain “inaccuracies.” The report was not made available in PDF format and as a result is not included in this story.
Ordinance Presentation Restructuring Bristol Township’s Fire Districts PPT
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