Photos by Richard Lewin Professional Photography (soniboy@aol.com)
Welcome to this month’s edition of the Montauk Fire Department Corner. As we know this is the time of year when second home owners start coming back to town and preparing for their summer. It is also the time when people are reopening their homes, the perfect time for all of us to check that our smoke alarms and fire extinguishers in our homes are up and running properly.
I know it’s hard to believe because of the wet and long winter and spring we’ve been experiencing, but May is the start of the brush fire season for us in eastern Long Island. To this end the Montauk Fire Department has been taking steps to prepare for it. Recently we 
had 15 members of the Department take an advanced course on fighting brush fires, given by the New York State Wild Fire task force in conjunction with the Suffolk County Fire Academy in Yaphank. There will additional hands-on training in this 
area at the Suffolk Fire Academy next month. This is part of our continuing focus on training for both our new and our veteran personnel.
As part of this effort the Montauk Fire Department is preparing to welcome a new water supply truck/mini pumper into our fleet. This truck and pump will be capable of pumping 1,500 gallons of water per minute, as opposed to the truck it is replacing which could pump 750 gallons of water per minute. I’m sure we will have photos of this piece of equipment for you once we get in service.
I’d like to congratulate our following members who recently passed their New York State exam to become Certified Emergency Medical Technicians: Emerald Turnbull, London Rosière and Chris Conway. We are very happy to have these three new members ready to assist the Department and our community.
In April the Montauk Fire Department was proud to host the South Fork Fire Police Association’s monthly meeting. The Association’s members serve in Fire Departments from Eastport to Montauk. It was a record setting event for the SFFPA and for the Montauk 
Fire Department, with 130 fire police personnel attending the meeting and dinner. The meeting was conducted by President Derrick Edgar and the training portion was done by guest speaker Sgt. Timothy Treadwell, Senior Harbormaster of the East 
Hampton Town Police Marine Patrol. I’d like to thank Ex-Chief Joe Lenahan and his committee for providing a fabulous dinner and setting for this meeting to take place. Please enjoy the photos of this event provided by Honorary Fire Chief Rich Lewin.
We also had a Department drill in April which concentrated on the safe use of ladders, safety ropes, etc., when fighting fires and making medical rescues on tall buildings. Again please enjoy the photos provided by Rich Lewin.
I hope you enjoy edition of the MFD corner and I look forward to talking to you next month.
~ Vincent Franzone, Chief,
Montauk Fire Department
