10/24/2026
Good morning, everyone. I just posted the below from my personal account to Channel 5 Rachel News. I wanted to add some additional to this for our responders here in Cumberland.
THANK YOU to everyone that has been out over the past two days dealing with these large-scale incidents on Interstate 81. Without the team effort of Cumberland County's Fire Police, I think the motoring public as well as other emergency responders would have had a much more difficult time with everything.
Yesterday was interesting and long to say the least. Many traffic units were not able to get out due to manning issues on a Friday. We did great with what we had available. That availability also changed throughout the day. Thanks to those that came out when they became available.
A special thanks to MISSION BBQ for taking care of us!
Duncannon Fire Company Carlisle Regional Special Police, East Pennsboro Fire Police, Northern York County Fire Rescue, Upper Allen Fire Department, Lisburn Community Fire Company, Hampden Township Volunteer FD, Silver Spring Community Fire Co., New Kingstown Fire Co., Fairview Township Fire Department New Cumberland River Rescue
Fire Police of Pennsylvania,
Cumberland County, PA - Department of Public Safety
Emergency Incidents from the Perspectives of Fire Police
It is 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 24, 2026. I woke up about an hour ago after sleeping for over ten hours. This was needed to allow my body to “catch up” from yesterday. Yesterday, I too the day off from work so I could attend the funeral of a great man who was one of our past Fire Police officers in East Pennsboro. Bob was 92 and passed peacefully in his sleep last Thursday. This was expected due to aging out. While I am sad for losing such a dedicated, great human being, I’m even sadder that I missed his funeral and being able to honor his legacy.
Thursday, I stayed home from work, sick. Friday, feeling better, I was busy. Today, due to Friday’s duties as a volunteer emergency services worker, sick has taken the lead again today. I, like so many others, push through and do what needs to be done for our communities.
Many will disagree, contest, debate, and just plain won’t care what I have to say. I’ll say it anyways because so many more do care. I have found that those that care for their community far outnumber those that don’t. They far outnumber those that just want to be ignorant and cause consternation and chaos.
In the past two days (Thursday & Friday), Cumberland County has experienced THREE major interstate closures from Rt. 114 in Mechanicsburg, Exit 57 down through Carlisle. One was southbound and two were northbound. As I write this, Dauphin has a major incident happening on interstate 83 around Harrisburg. A week or so ago, Dauphin also experienced major traffic delays due to an accident on 322. NONE of these are abnormal for our area and are becoming increasingly frequent.
I beg EVERYONE to know that ALL emergency responders to these incidents are there for YOUR benefit. We DO NOT do it for praise or glory. There is not any satisfaction we get from keeping you from where you need to be. From a Fire Police perspective, our goal is to get you safely to where you need to go without causing additional traffic issues. Do we have a perfect plan? NO, everyone incident is completely different. When training, my crew will tell you that I preach the 10 ft rule. I can take ONE intersection, move points of impact 10 ft and create 100 scenarios on how we must deal with getting people where they need to go. ONE intersection!
Now throw in time of day. This affects our manning and who can come out. Remember, these are your neighbors that volunteer their time. They still have work, family, and their own lives to deal with. Some times of the day we get good manning and other times of the day we are very slim in numbers.
Severity of the incident. This determines how long you are delayed. This determines how we must get you around the incident. The more intricate this is, the harder it is for us to get YOU where you need to go.
COMMON things we see that both make everything harder on us WORKING for YOU and make the incidents UNSAFE for both other responders and YOU those we are trying to get to where you need to go include but are in NO way exclusive to the following:
1. ARGUING with us! Remember, we are not there purposely trying to keep you from where you need to be. Please just follow our guidance, we will always do our best to help you. If you have something special that is different to what we are directing, TALK to us. In many cases we can work something out. In some, there is nothing we will be able to do other than send you have we have to send you. This is an everyday thing we encounter, and we ask that you think about more than just yourselves in these situations.
2. PHOTOs while DRIVING! This is ILLEGAL & DANGEROUS. PA law now prohibits ANY use of your phones while you are driving. Do you know why? Because you are DISTRACTED. Being distracted around an emergency scene creates…more emergency scenes because we get secondary crashes due to inattention. We UNDERSTAND human nature. Curiosity is what drives the human brain. Also, “curiosity killed the cat”. It kills humans too. That photo is NEWS. The person that gets the news first gets the “scoop”, the notoriety, and gets the information out. Get the news but get it SAFELY! While driving is NOT safe. Please stop.
3. SHOULDERS on the roadway. These are NOT designed for YOU! Moving to get a better view or trying to “beat” the backlog is not helping US. Those lanes are used to get emergency equipment to the scene. They are used in maneuvering our vehicles during long-term incidents. They are used by US to move YOU; those stranded in large traffic backlogs because the road is closed. If you are blocking these, it just slows us down in helping YOU get moving again. Stay off the shoulders unless you are directed by us to use them.
I will wrap this up as it is already long enough. Please, please, please take what I have given you to better understand what Fire Police and other emergency responders are doing for YOU! Work with us so we can work better for you.
My name is Brian Fenerty. I am the Fire Police Captain for East Pennsboro Twp. I am also one of three Chiefs and two Captains for the Cumberland County Special Police Emergency Response Team, Team 800.
If anyone would like to learn more or has questions about anything I have said today, please reach out to me.
Drive safe! Be patient! Do right by one another! We are all in this together.
