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Norristown Professional Fire Fighters
Local 2335
P.O. Box 1157
Norristown, PA 19404
610-239-7760
History
On April 22, 1974 a charter was granted to ten men by the International Association of Fire Fighter’s thus creating I.A.F.F. Local #2335.
For well over 100 years, the various Norristown Fire Companies had employed men to perform different duties, beginning with horse tenders, housemen and eventually motorized apparatus driver/operators. The densely populated town had seen more than its share of fire losses and tried to compensate by having people available 24/7 to bolster its volunteer force. These men really had no uniformity and many didn’t really know one another, only with contact at various fire scenes etc...
As times changed along with the amount of fire calls, the men began to realize the need for a common ground with regard to qualifications, training, along with salary and benefits.
On February 4, 1975 this organization was officially recognized as the exclusive representative for all full time paid fire suppression personnel, and that all these fire fighters are employees of the Borough of Norristown.
While beginning with ten men the organization has eventually grown to its current size of sixteen, (twelve Fire Fighters, three Battalion Chiefs, and a Fire Marshal). There are a minimum of four on duty at any given time, up to a maximum of seven during the normal weekday, this includes the Fire Chief, who although not a member of the Union is also a full time employee available to immediately respond to any and all calls with the much needed help of our dedicated volunteers.
The Career Fire Fighters are civil service employees of the Municipality; many are former volunteers of the Department.
Times have changed since the 1800’s and the materials burning, the volume of emergency services needed, and the time needed to train properly to handle all of these problems has increased enormously. Without the full time employees of the Department, the response time would be different and without the dedication of the volunteer members of this Department the handful of employees could never get the job done.
We are one department consisting of many entities for the common good of our citizens.
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