PENNDALE — As a fire department, the Pennsdale Volunteer Fire Company — which also goes by the Muncy Township Volunteer Fire Company — on Village Road is literally living on the street.

Fire Chief Scott Oldweiler said all fire trucks have been moved out onto the front of the firehouse, which is now off limits to all members and the public as a result of a sewage backup that plagued the fire station at 261 Village Road in mid-April.

“I’m focusing on the firehouse and the members of the fire company. Under the current conditions, it is no longer safe or healthy for our members to be in the station,” he said in an interview Wednesday morning.

“You can smell (the sewage) as soon as you walk in the doors. It is pungent, putrid. It is foul,” Oldweiler said. The fire company recently had an independent environmental study done by an Altoona-area firm, and shortly after receiving the firm’s report, it was decided last week to move the equipment outside and have all members carry their turnout gear in their own personal vehicles until this “biohazard” is cleaned up, he said.

“I want to assure the public that even though the firehouse itself has been shut down, the fire company still is in full operation and we are able to respond to emergency calls. We just don’t have a place to call home,” Oldweiler said. The firehouse was built in the late 1990s, and around 2019, it turned over ownership of the structure to Muncy Township, which has its municipal offices on the first floor.

The sewage back up was discovered by the fire company’s on-duty day crew on or about April 18, he said. “The sewage was coming up through floor drains back in our recreation area and in our showers,” he said adding “we now have sewage soaking up the walls.”

Since the fire company’s ambulance crew can no longer replenish necessary supplies for the ambulance after each emergency call – such supplies as oxygen cylinders as well as bandages and neck collars – the Muncy Area Volunteer Fire Company in Muncy Creek Township has been providing those items “so that way we can continue to keep our ambulance in service, up and running,” Oldweiler, a 40-year fire company member, explained.The neighboring fire company is also filling Pennsdale’s individual firefighter air tanks with its cascade system since the fire department use their system with the station closed.

Also, the fire company is holding their monthly meetings at the nearby Pennsdale Trinity United Methodist Church, “which graciously opened their doors for use to conduct such meetings until this issue is taken care of,” he added.

The issue is an ongoing feud between Muncy Township and the fire company over who should pay for the cost of the cleanup.