"Help on the Way"

About Us

Leo is proud to be certified by the State Fire Commissioner as a participating department of the Pennsylvania Fire Service Certification Program at the 50% Level, which means 50% of our volunteer members are Fire II State Certified. Leo is honored to be recognized by the state for this achievement as we are a 100% volunteer company.

Leo Fire Company, also knowns as Station 34, is located in Red Lion, York County, Pennsylvania. We are a 100% volunteer fire service serving Red Lion Borough, Windsor Township, York Township and various other surrounding municipalities as mutual aid. We have 6 pieces of apparatus housed in a new station that was dedicated in October 2005. Our previous station, located next door to the new station, contains our offices, lounge, kitchen and social hall. If you see a light on, feel free to stop in and take a look around or chat with some of your local volunteers!

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This site was created by a lifetime volunteer member of Red Lion Fire Co. to better serve the firefighters of York County:

Click here to view York County Fire Paging System

Why Does The Siren Blow?

In 1925, the first fire siren was put in service in Red Lion Borough. Since then it rang until 2011 when the Borough Council decided it was longer a service needed. Our paging system is not always reliable, depending on your location. There have been many instances, even recently, that the siren is blowing, but a firefighters pager has not gone off. If no one were to respond to an emergency, this could be disastrous, so the siren does serve as a back up to alert firefighters there is an emergency to respond to.

The siren also serves as a warning to nearby residents that there is an emergency response in progress, making you more alert to incoming personnel and outgoing apparatus. If you’ve ever driven past the fire house, you’ll see there is a large pad in front of the station that local children use to ride their bikes around on as well as people walking across if there is a hall rental. This will also serve as a warning to those people, that they need to move out of the way as equipment will be responding and firefighters will be pulling in quickly to respond.

The siren also makes the public aware of how busy your local volunteer fire company is day and night. It may wake you up at 2 AM when it blows, but remember, you can roll back over and go to sleep, those of us that are volunteers may be up for several hours fighting a fire, or rescuing someone trapped in their vehicle. We still have to go to work in the morning, get our children ready for school, or do other daily chores after being out on a call. We are volunteering our time to help others, and we are away from our family during that time and may even risk our lives. So remember the next time you hear the siren blow that there are men and women volunteering their time to help others and maybe even say a little prayer to watch over them!

Where Does My Fire Protection Come From?

Neighbors Helping Neighbors to Protect Life and Property

Excerpts taken from Chief Brad Fiore, Cottekill Volunteer Fire Company

You may have seen the movies Backdraft or Ladder 49. Maybe you’ve caught an episode of Rescue Me or Third Watch. Certainly some of you remember the 1970s television series Emergency.  Most images on television, in movies and in books are those of career or paid firefighters. They work, eat and sleep at the fire station. The bell rings, and off they go to the emergency.  Is that the image you have? Unfortunately, that’s not the case throughout most of the country. Nearly 72 percent of the 30,000 fire departments in the U.S. are volunteer departments. Here’s how your Fire Emergency Services works.

There are three parts to the fire protection equation. Think of it as a triangle with information and resources flowing in both directions. It is made up of:
The Fire District • The Fire Company • The Community
Let's take a look at the responsibilities of each one.

The Fire District is the political boundary where your Fire Department handles the fire protection for that specific jurisdiction.  These municipalities are governed by local council members or township commissioners.  The fire department is not governed by any municipality, it governs itself.  Each fire department decides on what equipment and recourses are needed to be purchased for them to provide the best fire protection they can for their districts.

The Fire Company is the human resource, responsible for answering the community’s calls for help. Every week they perform checks of all equipment and train for emergency situations. They are volunteers. They leave their jobs and the dinner table, and they get up in the middle of the night—all to help a neighbor in need.

Most important, there is the Community, which also has responsibilities for fire protection.  The first is practicing fire safety at home.  The second is electing commissioners and paying a fire tax to help cover fire district costs. The third and largest responsibility of the community is to volunteer.

In the fire service, we learn about the fire triangle:  fuel + heat + oxygen = FIRE. If you take one element out of the equation, the fire goes out. If you remove one of the components in our fire protection triangle, the fire gets bigger, people lose their property, and some may even lose their lives.  Currently, there is an imbalance in the fire protection triangle.  The Fire District financial assists in supplying equipment.  The Fire Company uses and maintains the equipment and answers the community’s calls for help, although it is struggling to do so. The Community pays the taxes, but here is where the breakdown of the triangle begins.

The human resources are not being provided to the fire company. This is hard on the few who are volunteering, and leaves both the fire company and the community at risk. The same jobs normally done at an emergency scene by 15 to 30 firefighters still need tobe done even if there are only 5 to 8 firefighters.  This causes undue stress on the firefighters and threatens lives. This imbalance also creates property threats, since a few volunteers can only do so much.

Ask yourself, “What am I doing Wednesday nights that is more important than learning how to save lives?” or “Could I live with the fact that my neighbors’ house burned or they lost their lives and all I could do was watch?” You own the firehouse, the trucks and all the equipment. Be more than just an owner— be a member.