During Wednesday evening's meeting of the Girardville Borough Council, approval was made at the request of the borough's Fire Chief Frank Zangari to hold a town-wide fire drill.
Zangari says the purpose of the drill is due to more children being at home during the COVID-19 pandemic and are attending school virtually.
"Normally as a fire chief, if I had a morning or afternoon fire during this time of year, I wouldn't worry about children being home. Today, I'm extremely worried about it because we are limited staff during the day in the volunteer fire service, and now I have more occupancy than I ever did. " Zangari said.
"Summertime isn't bad because you know the kids are out playing, but as we move into the fall there are more children in studying or working on school work." Zangari added.
The drill will be held at 2:00pm with the sounding of an air raid siren, different than the borough's normal fire whistle.
At the sound of the siren, residents will be asked to gather their children and exit their home as if there was a fire and gather on their front porch.
All of the borough's fire apparatus will be staged at the Ranger's Hose Company on East Ogden Street.
After the siren stops, apparatus will pass through the borough and once they pass, residents are than able to go back into their homes. The apparatus will have their lights on but no sirens.
The whole drill is expected to last approximately 15 minutes.
A second drill is being planned in October in order to have a drill for children that are at school on Friday.
Anyone with any questions about the fire drill can contact Chief Zangari at (570) 276-6922.