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Related: NYC Volunteer Dept. Out Of Action
When Firefighter Jim Mathews read the story of a volunteer fire department
in the heart of New York City that had lost its engine at the World Trade
Center attack, he thought he might have a way of helping out.
The Franconia Volunteer Fire Department, Franconia, VA, had just put their
new 2001 Pierce into service. Sitting behind the station was the 1988 E-One
Hush pumper that it had replaced.
"I forwarded the story around to the members and said hey guys what do you
think"
The regular monthly meeting was the next night and the membership voted
unanimously to donate the pumper to the Aviation Volunteer Fire Department,
Engine Company 3, in the Bronx.
"Once everybody knew what was going on, they thought, gees we should do it,"
Mathews said.
Photo By Tammy Stuber
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Aviation is one of only ten all-volunteer companies in the City of New York,
and one of two in the Bronx. The ten volunteer companies are a little known
part of the fire protection system in the city. These ten companies are
tenacious holdovers from what was once an all-volunteer system.
Mathews called Aviation before the meeting and the vote to make sure this
was something the New Yorkers wanted to do. "They asked a few details about
it. When I told them this was a 1988 they said 'Oh yes, absolutely.'"
"The day after that, my chief was on the phone with their chief and they
worked it all out."
Early Sunday morning, the pumper and chief's vehicle will head up I-95 to
deliver the donation. "We will give them the papers and shake some hands and
make a little visit out of it."
But they won't leave the pumper there. They will drive it back to Frederick,
MD to a paint shop where the Fanconia yellow will become Aviation VFD red.
FVFD Chief Tim Fleming will drive the engine up. Also going are Firefighter
recruit John Fowler, Fairfax County Firefighter master technician George
Hood and FVFD Assistant Chief Gary Gaal, along with Mathews.
Franconia VFD had tried to sell the pumper but had only modest interest
expressed.
"It had kind of sat there a while and we were trying to decide what to do
with it." Mathews said.
Photo By Tammy Stuber
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"And then this came up. It was a good idea. It was not like we were taking a
front line piece out of service. So, we saw that they really needed it and
said lets help out our brothers up in New York," Mathews said.
Aviation VFD Fire Chief William Rivera said, "That day was the worst moment
in the history of the fire department. It was bad. We lost everything but
our lives."
But now, things are looking much better. They are hoping to have enough
money in donations to start on a new firehouse in April. And in about three
weeks their damaged engine should be back in working order.
"Originally we had 3 engines.one and two got disbanded. Now we can get two
going again," Rivera said.
They had calls from all over the country with offers of help. "Its too bad
it takes a tragedy like this, but I guess it helps us prepare for something
else. We will be better prepared then we were before," Rivera said.
