Bradenville Fire Department seeks donated toys, to offer tours of station

The Bradenville Fire Department is asking the public to help fill one of its trucks with gifts that Toys For Tots will distribute to help brighten the holiday season for some area children.

Donations of new, unwrapped toys will be accepted from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10 at the fire station, 210 School St., in the Derry Township village of Bradenville.

“We’ll be a collection point and take the toys up to the distribution center in Youngwood,” said Bradenville Fire Chief Mark Piantine.

The department also will serve refreshments and offer tours of the station, which was dedicated in May 2022. The two-story $1.8 million building tripled the space available to firefighters in their previous cramped hall.

The Bradenville company’s fleet recently expanded with the addition of a seventh vehicle. The department spent about $140,000 to refurbish a 75-foot used ladder and bucket truck it purchased for $250,000 from Ligonier’s fire department.

The Sutphen truck was updated at the manufacturer’s facility in Ohio, where it was fitted with new LED lights, finally arriving in Bradenville in early July.

Investing in a used truck made sense for the Bradenville department, Piantine said.

“A new ladder truck would have cost almost $1.5 million, and there’s a three- to four-year wait to get one,” he said.

The addition of the ladder truck is in line with recommendations of the township comprehensive plan for protecting structures.

“We needed a piece of apparatus like that,” Piantine said.

He suggested having the extra truck in place could help qualify local residents for lower rates for their home insurance policies.