MERIDEN, Conn. — After more than a century of service, the City of Meriden announced Thursday that it will deactivate the South Meriden Volunteer Fire Department, Engine Company 6, ending 117 years of volunteer firefighting in the community.

City officials said the decision was influenced by declining volunteer participation and limited budgets.

The volunteer company has answered “thousands and thousands” of emergency calls as an auxiliary to Meriden’s full-time fire department since being founded in 1908.

Fire department officials say that only five active volunteers remain from a core roster that once numbered about 17. They added that the numbers have dwindled in recent years compared to being much larger in past decades.

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