With a round of applause, community members and family welcomed 21 new part-time firefighters to the Millcreek Township Fire Department.

One of the part time firefighters sworn in on Tuesday night’s Millcreek Township Supervisors meeting, Dylan Gamber, previously volunteered with the West Ridge Fire Department. 

"I’ve been a volunteer now at West Ridge for four or five months. So, it was nice to move into the paid part of Millcreek Township as I’ve already seen the volunteer side. To start doing the paid side it's a good experience. Have a lot of friends I've made along the way on the volunteer side, and then just being here with now as a paid staff member, it's a really good feeling," Gamber said.

 Along with saying an oath, the firefighters and their families did a pinning of the badges. 

“The pinning process, which is a symbolic process of becoming a firefighter, and we really love it where the families are able to come up and be a part of that. It is a commitment for the firefighters to serve the community and also their families . . . ”The Chief of Millcreek Township Fire Department Michael Cliff said, “They're also going to be bringing, you know, some of these incidents that they have to deal with on a daily basis. They start to cope with that in the home setting, so it's not just the firefighters themselves, it's also their families that are, you know, putting themselves out there for the residents of Millcreek Township.”

Cliff said these part-time employees, and the department as a whole, will help in providing faster response times to residents in the community.

“We're still going to rely on our response from our volunteers as well. If there's a residential structure fire, six people is still not enough. So, we are still going to be counting on our volunteers, but this is a great step in the right direction to make sure that Millcreek Township residents are receiving the closest, most appropriate and fastest response in an emergency,“ Cliff said.