News

Our volunteers were busy helping our neighbors.  The day started off with our friends from Sparkill requesting our FAST team to Dominican Convent on Route 340.  An underground vault with transformers for the convent caught fire.  Once Orange & Rockland Utilities were able to cut the power Sparkill moved from a defensive or preventive strategy to an offensive one.  With that decision, Sparkill's Chief, Mike Yannazone, called Orangeburg for their FAST in the event something went terrible wrong.  Our EQ responded to the scene and provided this security to Sparkill and the Piermont firefighters. All three Chiefs responded - Chris Jackson, Neil Lynady and Pete Byrne.

Several hours later contractors replacing a 12 inch low pressure gas main on North Broadway n Nyack struck the gas line and caused a gas feed fire.  Once Nyack's Chiefs, Jim Petriello and Vinny Reed arrived on the scene they realized their biggest challenge was the exposed buildings.  Several departments were called to the scene to assist and Orangeburg assisted with dancing hand lines to protect the exposures.  Orangeburg's EQ and all three Chiefs responded to this incident as well.

Next

On Saturday, June 2nd, our friends from SOAC, South Orangetown Ambulance Corp, held their Recognition Dinner.  Our Assistant Engineer, Brendan Fridhandler, received two prestigious Life Saving Awards.  The first was for an incident in 2011 when Brendan participated in the opening of a closed airway on a patient.  The second award was for a recent incident when an individual's heart just stopped working.  A very concerned neighbor, who just happened to be driving by, realized something was terribly wrong.  She stopped and immediately started CPR on the gentleman and then Brendan and a crew from SOAC and Rockland Paramedics arrived.  They were able to get his heart started.  In a very touching moment the victim was at the dinner to personally thank this amazing crew. 

We are very proud of our member Brendan Fridhandler as this is his third award in recent years for his ability to assist during serious incidents.  Previously Brendan was recognized by the Rockland County Fire Service for assisting a family exit their burning home in the middle of the night.  Brendan, while at work, received their desperate 911 call.  Brendan and fellow dispatcher Troy Spong, talked to the family as their exit from the home was blocked by heavy fire and smoke.  They accomplished this as they were providing updates to the responding fire department as to the location of the trapped family. The entire family was saved.

 The Orangeburg Fire Department, The Town of Orangetown and Rockland County are very fortunate to have someone of Brendan's caliber involved in Emergency Services.  His knowledge, experience and ability to stay calm has proven several times to be an extremely important asset for our neighbors.  Thanks Brendan and keep up the excellent work!!