In the beginning of the year, Dauphin County Control is in the process of switching to a new radio system. Through bulk purchases by the county, four new channel solid-state radios are made available to the county fire companies. Our company votes to purchase three of these radios, one each for the engine, ambulance and new tanker. The dispatch frequency is also changing from 33.90 to 33.80 and two additional frequencies are being added, one for fire ground (33.84) and one for ambulance to hospital communication (33.86). In March, the radios arrived and were installed. In May, a fire police class was held at the township building and eleven people attended. July was one of the lowest and highest points of the fire company. The lowest came when our Mack was involved in a head on collision while responding to a reported mobile home fire at the intersection of Engle Road and River Road. The Mack collided with the vehicle of the company’s Chief Driver, Francis “Sam” Fullerton.

Sam was responding to the station for the call and collided with the Mack on Geyers Church Road and Felker Road. Unfortunately, Sam was killed in this accident. He became our companies first and to this point in time, the only line of duty death. We miss him dearly. The accident also took the Mack out of service. The Howe Corp. expedited the completion of the new tanker-pumper, which at the time of the accident was nearly completed, and delivered it within a week of the accident. The arrival of our new, built for our company, Howe Super Pumper Tanker, was one of the greatest highs. At the August company meeting a motion was made and passed to dedicate the new tanker-pumper with a plaque to the memory of Francis “Sam” Fullerton. In September, the company approved the $8000.00 estimate to repair the Mack. After some lively discussion with the insurance carrier, the insurance paid all but $250.00, which was changing the color from red to lime yellow. The repairs were done by Hammerly in Allentown. In October, the company installed two 500 gallon fuel tanks from Highland Tank Co. at a cost of $182.00 each. This was done so the equipment could be refueled anytime we returned from a call, even in the middle of the night. In November, the Mack returned to service after the accident repairs were completed. In December, the company purchased a new boat trailer from Fiermonte Chrysler for $75.00.