Young volunteers are recruited
Appa keeps the door open for volunteers from other communities. Nate Gray, 18 years old and a senior at Coleman High School, is from St. Remy. He has been at the fire department for three years already. Gray chose Ulster Hose Co. 5 over a more local fire company because of its call volume and the training.
“The training we get here you cannot find anywhere else,” said Gray. “They have a reputation as the best and I wanted to be part of the best.” Gray said he joined because his older brother Will Gray is in the department, as well as many of his friends. “There is something about being here that keeps you coming back,” said Gray. “There’s always someone here, always something to do, we are either training or running calls and we have fun. Gray is going to Anna Maria College to study fire science. He wants to be a career fireman, and he wants the training to learn more about the field in general.
Mike Fitzgerald Jr., 17, is also a Coleman High senior. He lives in Connelly. His father is a career fireman in Kingston. Rather than going back and forth between Connelly and Ulster, Fitzgerald kicks around the firehouse for about six hours a day, on top of his varsity soccer schedule. Fitzgerald feels so at-home in a firehouse that he will soon be living fulltime in one; in the fall Fitzgerald will be going to Onondaga Community College as a live-in firefighter studying fire protection technology. He will be living in a bunk in a firehouse, working shifts. “It’s not about being a career fireman,” said Fitzgerald. “It’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle. It’s about the passion.”
All in the family
Appa used his Number One, Shawn Heppner from the Town of Ulster, as a model. First assistant chief Heppner is a lineman for Central Hudson who joined the firehouse in 1997, when he was 16 years old. Like Quigley, Heppner has ten family members in the company.
“We do a lot of things outside of the firehouse, like going to concerts, barbecues. We have a softball team,” said Heppner, whose father Fred Heppner is a longtime company volunteer as well. “We have a lot of family here. My father and I are on the same page; we work together. That’s the big thing about everything here, it’s a failure if you don’t.”
As for fostering a culture of cooperation and brotherhood for the young men, which the younger men and Appa all claim is a point of strength for Heppner, it’s about cultivating the different attitudes and thinking processes into a cohesive blend. “You have to get everyone to work as a team instead of being out there on their own,” Heppner explained, “but they have to be as a team, and they have to get in the cycle of doing things as a team.”
When Tim Quigley went on his first call three years ago, he had five family members in the fire truck with him, which he said gave him a sense of comfort and ease. Gray, Fitzgerald, Quigley all spend much of their after-school and weekend hours at the firehouse. Appa said the young men are very welcome to do that, providing the grades stay up. That’s a condition, so the boys make sure the grades do stay up.
Michael Sasso, Glasco Fire District chief, said that his company does a lot of training with Ulster Hose Co. 5. “We rely on each other quite a bit, they are our second due, so for our second alarm they automatically come to our scenes,” he said. “Our companies work hand in hand together. We have a long relationship with them, a lot of camaraderie between the departments. We work together and do things similarly, we share a lot of values, like how we train our members. Their brotherhood is their strength. They have a great group of volunteers, and are a great group of guys and girls to work with. Their strength is their dedication to what they do.”
Training to win
Specialty training is what keeps volunteers rolling through the doors. Bare minimum training required by the New York State Department of Labor is Firefighter 101 courses offered by the state. However, Appa requires three hours of in-house training and drills per week, about 15-20 hours a month. The men must wear suits weighing between 30 and 40 pounds of gear, and an additional heft from the air tanks that weigh more than 20 pounds. Physical fitness is required as well. Rather than having them pass a specific test, Appa said he chooses to take the men at their word regarding their own restrictions, and assess their fitness level on a course and in the field.
Scuba and dive training can take years, he said, and under-ice diving is even more specialized. Their training is open to members of other fire companies as well. Next month Ulster Hose Co. 5 will host another scuba training session, said Appa.
