…Photos by Richard Lewin Professional Photogrphy (soniboy@aol.com)…
Hello, and welcome to this month’s edition of the Montauk Fire Department Corner. I hope everyone had a nice month of March as the weather is warming up and we all celebrated a beautiful day for this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day parade.
I am saddened to report that we lost one of our brother firemen in March. Ex-Fire Fighter Jack Craft answered his last alarm. Jack had been a twenty year plus member of the Montauk Fire Department, and had retired to Florida. On behalf of the Officers, men and women, of the Montauk Fire Department, I would like to offer our deepest sympathy.
We also had a memorial/celebration of life service for Ex-Chief Dennis Snyder who passed away a year ago. On Sunday, March 10th Father Tom Murray dedicated the 10:30 mass to Dennis. Over 50 Fire Fighters, EMT’s, and Ladies Auxiliary attended. After mass we all met at the fire house for a reception with Dennis’s family.
On March 13th Fire Fighter Heather Matthews gave a tour of the Montauk Fire Department to nine Girl Scouts from Montauk Troop 825. The girls had a great time, and finished up with some pizza in the department meeting room. Thanks, Heather for doing this. I’m sure the Scouts enjoyed it and hopefully will be interested in joining the MFD in a few years.
Our March fire school and drill was dedicated to a very important aspect of fire operations, the MAYDAY scenario. This is a situation where a fire fighter is trapped in a burning building and issues a MAYDAY call via radio. As you can imagine, communications, speed and safety are paramount in rescuing our trapped brother or sister fire fighter. Additionally, the medical assessment of the fire fighter, as well prompt first aid, is also important, and was made part of the drill which included our EMS personnel.
The Montauk Fire Department’s Ambulance Company No. 4 will be hosting an informational meeting for any residents interested in joining the Department as Emergency Medical Technician. The meeting will be at the Montauk Fire House on Friday, April 5th at 7 p.m. Please stop down and see if this is something that you would be interested in doing. It’s a very rewarding experience, and you would be helping your friends and neighbors at the same time.
As promised, I will be sharing a few monthly MFD statistics in each month’s article. I’m sure this will help reflect the commitment our personnel have to the citizens of Montauk. We had a total of 23 calls for service during the month of February, down from 26 through the same time period last year. One of these calls was a structure fire. Ten of those calls were between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., 5 were alcohol/drug related incidents. Captain Dustin Lightcap was the highest responder with 16 responses, tied for second was Bill Hoffman, Lt. Bob Mautschke, and Chris Waterman with 7 each, and Dick Monahan had responded 7 times. Thanks for your terrific response to people in need. I’d also like to thank Bob Mautschke who is providing these monthly statistics.
Last, but certainly not least was the Montauk Fire Department’s participation in this year’s Montauk Friends of Erin Saint Patrick’s Day Parade. I was extremely proud to lead the Department in the Parade, behind this year’s Grand Marshal, Gordon Ryan. It was a perfectly beautiful day, with bands, floats, and fire department’s represented from as far West as Holtsville. Please enjoy the accompanying photos provided by Honorary Montauk Fire Department Chief, Rich Lewin.
That’s all for this month. Have a great Easter and Passover and we’ll talk again next month.
~ David Ryan, Chief, Montauk Fire Department
