Section of I-76 Renamed Where Firefighter Was Killed on Duty
Rep. Mary Jo Daley January 20, 2023 | 4:26 PM
HARRISBURG, Jan. 20 – A renaming ceremony of a section of I-76 (the Schuylkill Expressway) where Thomas Royds, the Lower Merion firefighter, was killed in the line of duty on July 24, 2021, was held this week, state Rep. Mary Jo Daley announced.
There are two signs memorializing Royds on I-76, one facing eastbound traffic and one facing the westbound lanes.
“Royds spent his entire adult life serving the people of Lower Merion,” Daley said. “For over three decades, he risked his life daily so our families could be safe from fire and other dangers. I wanted to memorialize Royds’ heroic service at the place where he lost his life responding to an emergency call.”
The renaming ceremony took place at the Belmont Hills Fire Company firehouse where Daley, D-Montgomery, made some remarks in honor of the fallen firefighter and presented the family with a replica of the state Transportation Department road sign. Both Charles McGarvey, chief of the Lower Merion Fire Department at the time of the tragedy, and Lower Merion Township Commissioner Dan Bernheim, the commission’s Fire Committee chair, also made remarks.
Royds served with the Lower Merion Fire Department in Montgomery County since 1988 and was serving with three different fire companies at the time of his death. He was also a lieutenant with the Union Fire Association and posthumously promoted to the rank of captain.