[Adopted 4-6-1982 as Ch.
23 of the 1981 Code]
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.
A.
The Chief of the Fire Department shall be elected for
and serve for a term of two years, his term of office expiring the first Monday
after the first day of January of the first even-numbered year following his
election. The Fire Department shall, in such manner as it may, select, elect
and submit to the Public Safety Committee of the Borough Council immediately
before the Borough Council's reorganization meeting of each even-numbered
year, or as soon thereafter as practical, a candidate for the office of Chief
of the Fire Department for appointment by the Borough Council.
B.
In the event of the death, removal, resignation or failure
of confirmation by the Council of the Chief, the Fire Department shall be
notified to immediately present the name of some other candidate for confirmation.
A.
The Chief shall have full control of the Fire Department
at all fires, assigning each company to its respective duty and relieving
it when service is no longer required and so directing and superintending
the operations of the Department as will best protect property from destruction
by fire or by unnecessary use of water. He shall prescribe rules for the regulation
of the companies, their members and apparatus at fires and going to and returning
therefrom and in such other respects as shall bear upon their discipline and
efficiency. He shall have power at fires to rope off streets when deemed necessary
and to exclude the public from the immediate vicinity of the fire or place
of danger, with authority to call upon the police for assistance in this work.
He shall, under such rules and regulations as may be approved by the Fire
Department, have full control of the distribution and recall of firemen's
badges, keeping complete records thereof. He shall investigate all fires and
keep a correct record thereof in a book to be provided by the Council and
to remain the property of the borough, which record shall give the date of
each fire, the location thereof, the number of the box from which the alarm
was sent, the time of the alarm and the time and order in which each company
reached the fire, the time of the Department's relief from service, the description
of the property burned, the name of the owner or tenant and the cause of fire,
if obtainable. He shall visit the house of each company of the Department
at least once every three months and inspect the apparatus, hose and equipment
and shall, whenever necessary, recommend, in writing, to the respective company
any improvement, reform or change deemed necessary for the good of the service.
Should the company so notified fail to comply therewith within one month,
the Fire Chief shall certify the fact to the Council for appropriate action.
B.
Annually, at the first meeting of the Council in the
month of May, the Chief shall submit a report of the number of fires during
the past year, the state of efficiency of the Department and such recommendations
for its betterment as his knowledge and experience dictate.
[Amended 9-1-1992 by Ord.
No. 92-19[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: Original § 23-4C of the 1981 Code, which
dealt with District Engineers and immediately followed this subsection, was
deleted 9-1-1992 by Ord. No. 92-19.
[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.
A.
Insubordination, improper conduct or violation of rules
by individual members of the Fire Department shall be reported by the Chief
in charge to the respective companies for such action as the Chief determines
appropriate. Unless the individual charged with the violation appeals such
disciplinary action, the order of the Chief shall be final.
B.
Should the individual charged with the disciplinary action
appeal the order of the Chief, the appeal shall be heard by the Firemen's
Review Board. The Firemen's Review Board shall be comprised of two members
of each fire house. The members of the Review Board shall be appointed by
the membership of the individual fire companies, and no member of the Review
Board shall be a Chief, an Assistant Chief or an officer of any fire company.
C.
The Review Board, after a hearing, may sustain, modify
or dismiss the charges against the individual member of the Fire Department,
and such action of the Review Board shall 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.
A.
The Council shall appropriate annually to the several
companies comprising the Fire Department of the borough such sums as, in the
opinion of the Council, may be right and proper. These appropriations shall
be paid monthly by order regularly granted by the Council upon receipt of
a certificate from the Chief that there are no deductions on account of fines
or delinquencies during the past six months and that the respective companies
have faithfully complied with such rules and regulations concerning their
equipment, apparatus, discipline and efficiency as may from time to time be
duly prescribed.
B.
Should the Chief refuse this certificate, the Fire Protection
Committee shall investigate the cause and reason for its being withheld and,
if good cause is shown, shall withhold the whole or so much of the monthly
appropriation as may be deemed proper.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Original § 23-11 of the 1981 Code, Appropriation
of receipts from foreign fire insurance companies, which immediately followed
this section, was deleted 9-1-1992 by Ord. No. 92-19.
