La Mott Fire Company plans to build an apartment building behind its firehouse and offer firefighters free or reduced rent in an effort to attract more volunteers and improve response times.
The Cheltenham Township-based department filed plans with Montgomery County in early September to build a 3,000-square-foot apartment unit behind the firehouse on Penrose Avenue. The county filed its initial review letter on Friday, and the plan is now working its way through the township approval process.
The four-unit addition would have a door directly into the firehouse, La Mott leaders said last week. Each apartment would have its own bedroom, bathroom, and sitting room, with a shared kitchen, laundry, and communal area.
The fire company also wants to tackle infrastructure renovations in the existing 1950s building as part of the project, such as improving the sewer and water lines.
La Mott has been pushing to lower response times in recent years, company president Ken Hellendall said, including hiring paid firefighters for tasks that require additional training, like driving the truck. Most of the company’s roughly 30 active members are trained volunteers.
“We are looking at quicker response times, and even quicker when we have people living here,” Hellendall said.
La Mott has averaged 250 calls per year in the last five years, according to data on its website. For a town of Cheltenham’s density, national benchmarks recommend all needed firefighters arrive at low-hazard structure fires in under nine minutes.
It’s difficult to say whether La Mott is meeting the benchmark because Cheltenham does not specify whether calls are fires in the monthly fire marshal’s report, but La Mott’s average response time across all types of calls was six minutes for 2025.
A state study found Cheltenham’s four fire companies’ average response times met the benchmark in 2019, but they struggled to meet the staffing benchmark of 15 firefighters responding.
The company will likely offer the apartments for free or reduced rent to firefighters who take on a certain portion of calls and other duties, leaders said, but they haven’t worked out the details yet. It’s not yet clear how the company will pay for recurring costs such as utilities and maintenance.
La Mott used to pay rent for two firefighters at Lynnewood Gardens Apartments for a total of $3,000 per month. Having them three minutes away helped, leaders said, but it wasn’t worth the cost, and the company ended that initiative in 2025 after the two firefighters left.
La Mott isn’t the only fire company offering housing to its firefighters.
The head of the building committee, Dave Schwartz, toured different types of living quarters at other companies, including Elkins Park, Fort Washington, and Gladwyne, to help design La Mott’s addition, he said.
A state grant for $850,000 might cover about half the project, Chief Joe Stuckert estimated, and the company plans to use savings and loans for whatever’s left.
The apartments could be open as soon as early 2028, Schwartz said.
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