Montgomery county fire identifiers

[policefreak]

When fire apparatus is dispatched in Montgomery county, why does the dispatcher say stuff like "Ladder 700, squad 500"? Does that just mean ladder from station 7 and squad from station 5, or does it mean a specific chief officer from the squad or ladder company. I could never quite get that, because at other times they do say Ladder 7 and Squad 9. So whats the difference?

[CommJunkie]

Because there is a station 700 and a station 500.

List Of Fire Companies

Station 1 - Glenside Fire
Station 2 - LaMott Fire
Station 3 - Elkins Park Fire
Station 4 - Cheltenham Fire
Station 5 - Ogontz Fire
Station 6 - Flourtown Fire
Station 7 - Wissahickon Fire
Station 8 - Huntingdon Fire
Station 9 - Rockledge Fire
Station 10 - Willow Grove Fire
Station 11 - Bryn Athyn Fire
Station 12 - Colmar Fire
Station 14 - Fairmount Fire (Lansdale)
Station 15 - Horsham Fire
Station 16 - Independent #2 (Jenkintown)
Station 17 - Hatfield Fire
Station 18 - Montgomery Twp. Fire
Station 21 - Penn Wynne Fire
Station 22 - Belmont Hills Fire
Station 23 - Bryn Mawr Fire
Station 24 - Gladwyne Fire
Station 25 - Merion Fire (Ardmore)
Station 26 - Narberth Fire
Station 27 - Norristown Fire
Station 27A - Norris
Station 27B - Mongomery
Station 27C - Humane
Station 27D - Fairmount
Station 27E - Hancock
Station 28 - Union Fire (Bala Cynwyd)
Station 29 - Barren Hill Fire
Station 31 - Bridgeport #1 Fire
Station 32 - Goodwill #2 Fire (Bridgeport)
Station 33 - Centre Square Fire
Station 34 - Collegeville Fire
Station 35 - Conshohocken #2 Fire
Station 36 - Washington Fire
Station 37 - New Handover Fire
Station 38 - East Greenville Fire
Station 39 - George Clay Fire
Station 41 - North Penn Fire
Station 42 - Green Lane Fire
Station 43 - Plymouth Fire
Station 44 - Harmonville Fire
Station 45 - Spring Mill Fire
Station 46 - Jefferson Fire
Station 47 - King Of Prussia Fire
Station 48 - Swedeland Fire
Station 49 - Swedesburg Fire
Station 51 - Linfield Fire
Station 52 - Lower Frederick Fire
Station 53 - Lower Provindence Fire
Station 54 - Limerick Fire
Station 55 - Mont Clare Fire
Station 56 - Lincoln Fire
Station 57 - Stowe Fire
Station 58 - Sanatoga Fire
Station 59 - Ringing Hill Fire
Station 61 - Norriton Fire
Station 62 - North Penn Fire (North Wales)
Station 63 - Oaks Fire
Station 64 - Telford Dive Unit
Station 65 - Pennsburg Fire
Station 66 - Perkiomen Fire
Station 67 - Gilbertsville Fire
Station 68 - Sassamansville Fire
Station 69A - North End (Pottstown)
Station 69B - Philadelphia Steam (Pottstown)
Station 69C - Empire (Pottstown)
Station 69D - North End (Pottstown)
Station 71 - Red Hill Fire
Station 72 - Tylersport Fire
Station 73 - Schwenksville Fire
Station 74 - Perseverence Fire (Souderton)
Station 75 - Telford Fire
Station 76 - Towamencin Fire
Station 77 - Trappe Fire
Station 78 - Upper Salford Fire
Station 79 - Upper Pottsgrove Fire
Station 80 - Upper Gwynned Fire
Station 82 - Wyndmoor Fire
Station 83 - Worcester Fire
Station 84 - Humane Fire (Royersford)
Station 85 - Friendship Fire (Royersford)
Station 86 - Skippack Fire
Station 87 - Upper Frederick Fire
Station 88 - Fort Washington Fire
Station 89 - Harleysville Fire
Station 95 - Enterprise Fire (Hatboro)
Station 96 - Pioneer Fire (Jenkintown)
Station 99 - Naval Air Station (Willow Grove)
Station 100 - Abington Fire
Station 200 - McKinley Fire
Station 300 - Weldon Fire
Station 400 - Edge Hill Fire
Station 500 - Roslyn Fire
Station 700 - Oreland Fire
Station 911 - Lincoln Haz Mat Team
Station 919 - Eastern Montco Haz Mat Team

[policefreak]

Wow! Thats weird. Shoulda thought of that! Thanks {:>D

[ctrabs74]

For some odd reason, Abington Township fire companies are numbered 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500. I have no idea why there's such Station 700 (which is in the "other" Springfield Twp) has that designation...

[CommJunkie]

I think Flourtown used to be 600 but then got moved to 6

They should move the 00's into open numbers...but I guess they aren't as confused in Montco as we are...

[policefreak]

Originally Posted by CommJunkie

I think Flourtown used to be 600 but then got moved to 6

They should move the 00's into open numbers...but I guess they aren't as confused in Montco as we are...

Wow, Ha! Ha! I wonder where CommJunkie is. Yeah, if the nubmers go all the way to 99, then you'd think Abington would start with 100, 101, 102 and so on and so forth down the line, and Springfield Twp. would be right after with 107. But I guess whatever works for them. I should have seen it on the database listing under codes and maps. But not having seen that, I never would have guessed that they had a station 500 and 700. Here in Camden county we have a station 5 and a station 7 and the units identified as 500 and 700 are the chiefs. It's just one of those things. Like one county called an ambulance a squad, and the neighboring county calls it a BLS, while for them "squad" is a piece of fire apparatus, a rescue engine. Funny. But it's kind of cool how every county does things a little different.

[scanjunkie]

It's a long story, the short version is that when the county changed all of the station numbers Abington, and a few others, didn't want to play ball. Part of their argument, I believe, was that they couldn't just get rid of the 00 and become Station 1, 2, 3 and so on. Those numbers were already taken by the Cheltenham Companies. So instead of changing to completely new numbers they just kept theirs. In most cases the zeros were just eliminated, 1050 to 15, 1000 to 10, 1200 to 12, etc, etc.

[obeone4046]

I woudl like to bye new equipment to listen to bucks , phila, and montgomery fire, police. Can someone tell me if this can be done and what I need . Thanks obeone4046

[benrussellpa]

Originally Posted by obeone4046

I woudl like to bye new equipment to listen to bucks , phila, and montgomery fire, police. Can someone tell me if this can be done and what I need . Thanks obeone4046

Any of the newer scanners that can decode digital audio will work for these areas.

I would recommend that if you're buying now, you should look first at the GRE digital scanners (PSR-500 and PSR-600). They're not cheap, but they'll do everything you need and more.

The only thing that is a must is that whatever scanner you get must handle P25 digital voice decoding. If it does not, all you'll hear is noise.

[CommJunkie]

I'd just get the radio itself if I had the money

[ejmarkey]

We currently have the following apparatus in service:
Engine 702: Attack engine, first out
Engine 703: Water supply engine, second out and will take the hydrant or draft
Engine 704: Attack engine (former Engine 702); usually only responds to working fires
Special Service 700: A van to transport additional manpower

[Maxx215]

Originally Posted by ctrabs74

For some odd reason, Abington Township fire companies are numbered 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500.

Part of the problem is that the 5 Abington Township fire companies want to have numbers that are grouped together. I remember hearing several years ago that there was the possibility that they could take the following numbers:

90 - Roslyn
91 - Abington
92 - McKinley
93 - Weldon
94 - Edge Hill

The only problem is that station 90, 91, 92 or 93 from Bucks County could potentially be at the same call as some of the Abington Township stations.

[n3obl]

solution for when you have county and out of county units id's at same scene or on same ch's

County Name (Unit Number)

ex... westmoreland engine 11 to county... on allegheny county fire ch's

Frank

[FPCAPT18-1]

Lansdale station 14 used to be 1240 and 1250 and chief 14 was 1255 for a long time.

[hippieman556]

i still get confused too when it comes to the numbers of the stations but i am getting better at it i think alot of it has to do with who was in the area 1st as a department maybe im wrong

[ctrabs74]

I'm wondering if the numbering is similar to Delaware County's system, in which station numbers there were assigned to companies based on when they joined the DelCo Firefigher's Association (or whatever the group is called).

That might not explain the Abington stations though, so I guess that theory goes out the window.

Is there a list out there of Montgomery County's old station numbering system?

[Johnsars]

Lets see...
600 Flourtown
650 Wynmoor
750 Wissahickon
800 Huntingdon Valley
850-860 Jenkintown
900 Rockledge
950 Hatboro
1000 Willow Grove
1050 Horsham
1099 Willow Grove NAS
1100 Bryn Athyn
1240-1250 Lansdale
1260-1270 Colmar
1280-1290 Hatfield ?

John

[CommJunkie]

Originally Posted by ctrabs74

I'm wondering if the numbering is similar to Delaware County's system, in which station numbers there were assigned to companies based on when they joined the DelCo Firefigher's Association (or whatever the group is called).

That might not explain the Abington stations though, so I guess that theory goes out the window.

Is there a list out there of Montgomery County's old station numbering system?

Close, Delco Fireman's Association.

[CommJunkie]

Originally Posted by FPCAPT18-1

Lansdale station 14 used to be 1240 and 1250 and chief 14 was 1255 for a long time.

Who was Station 14 before Lansdale? Or did they skip a lot of numbers?