The Bradford Township Volunteer Fire Department celebrated its 68th year of service to Bradford Township at its 42nd annual awards banquet Saturday

More than 60 members and invited guests attended the event. A buffet dinner preceded the awards ceremony. Guest speaker was McKean County President Judge John Pavlock. Service awards were presented to Harry Lamielle, 40 years; Bob Eliason, 25 years; and Jim Maze, 5 years. Maze also received the award for Service Above and Beyond.

Also receiving awards, but not present were, Steve Disney, 15 years; Matt Mongillo, 10 years; Drew Shreve, 10 years. Assistant Fire Chiefs Bob Eliason and Tim Burkhouse presented training awards to 13 firefighters. Qualifications for the training awards included a minimum of 32 hours of certified training and attending at least 50 percent of in-house training nights. Members receiving the award were Jay Bradish, Fire Chief Dan Burkhouse, Assistant Fire Chief Eliason, Assistant Fire Chief Tim Burkhouse, Nick Colley, Andrew Erickson, Dillon Goodreau, Robert Mackey, Mike Maze, Jim Maze, Matt Mongillo, Chad Niver and Randy Wolfgang.

Overall, department members participated in 1,201 man hours of certified training and 1,407 hours of in-house training. The evening concluded with a Year in Review video presentation of training and incidents from 2023.