The Fire Department shall consist of the Norristown Hose Company, the
Montgomery Hose and Steam Fire Engine Company, the Fairmount Engine Company,
the Humane Fire Engine Company, the Hancock Chemical Fire Engine Company No.
5, and such additional companies hereafter to be organized as the Council
may, from time to time, by ordinance or resolution receive into the Department.
[Amended 9-1-1992 by Ord.
No. 92-19]
The officers of the Fire Department of the Borough of Norristown shall
consist of one Chief and five Assistant Chiefs and one Fire Marshal and one
Assistant Fire Marshal. Each of these people shall have reached the age of
21, shall be a citizen of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
and be a resident of the Borough of Norristown for at least four consecutive
years immediately prior to his election to office and shall also have been
an active member of at least three years' standing in one of the volunteer
fire departments of the Borough of Norristown. The Fire Chief of the Borough
of Norristown, the Assistant Chiefs, the Fire Marshal and the Assistant Fire
Marshal may, at the discretion of the Borough Council, be paid such salary
or salaries as the Borough Council may, from time to time, determine and prescribe.
[Amended 9-1-1992 by Ord.
No. 92-19]
Before assuming office, the Chief shall take and subscribe the oath
required of borough officers. When on duty, he shall wear a badge to clearly
designate his office and be as fully equipped as circumstances permit. At
fires, he shall be an ex officio member of the police force with all of the
powers of the borough police.
[Amended 9-1-1992 by Ord.
No. 92-19]
The Council shall have the right at any time to suspend or expel the
Chief from office for such cause as the Council may deem sufficient.
[Amended 9-1-1992 by Ord.
No. 92-19]
All the companies of the Fire Department and every member of such companies
on duty at fires shall render implicit obedience to the orders of the Chief.
Without the consent of the Chief, no company shall attend any fire outside
the borough limits nor send its apparatus nor permit it to be taken beyond
the borough limits nor permit its apparatus to be used on a trial of skill
or test of power or capacity. In the event of a company's refusal to obey
his orders at a fire, the Chief may fine that company at least $10 and not
more than $50 and report to the Fire Protection Committee the cause and circumstances
under which the fine was imposed. From a fine of $10 there shall be no appeal.
From a fine of more than $10 the company fined may appeal, in writing, to
the Fire Protection Committee of the Council, which Committee shall convene
in extra session within one week and give a fair and impartial hearing to
the company, the Committee's decision to be final.
None but members shall be allowed on or about the apparatus of any company
at fires or going to or returning therefrom. Except when citizens are called
upon for aid in emergency, none but members of the Fire Department wearing
the official badge shall be permitted to assist at the extinguishment of fires
or to remain within the space reserved for firemen or necessary for their
work. No person not a member of any of the companies now or hereafter included
in the Fire Department shall wear such badge or a counterfeit thereof or display
it; and violation of this section shall subject the offender to a penalty
of $10 for the use of the borough, to be recovered by prosecution in the name
of the borough before any District Justice as fines are now collected by law.