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PV Volunteer Ambulance Corps & Volunteer Fire Department are Put to the Test Daily as Record Pace Continues
by Edward Paul Greiff
"Extraordinary times and events make legends and heroes out of the common person" is a phrase referring to the regular 'Joe' (or Josephina) who quietly and unpretentiously becomes a hero through their actions. The Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps has many such heroes - 45 riding active members, 20 youth corps members, and 15 associate members. The Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department also has many such heroes - 88 active members and over 100 associate members. Their combined total of over two hundred volunteers represents "the unsung heroes of Putnam Valley," says PVVAC volunteer Maureen McLaughlin.
Newly-elected Ambulance Corps Captain Sheryl Keating and newly-elected Fire Chief Louie Luongo both want to emphasize the key word is "volunteer." The men, women, boys and girls who volunteer for emergency services work, like everyone else, have jobs or go to school, have family obligations, need time for themselves and time for recreation. But these individuals take on an additional obligation for which their only compensation is their pride in a job well done and the knowledge that they are helping their fellow man and maybe even saving a life or two. They put in many hours of training and maintaining their emergency services skills and the equipment they'll need to execute those skills. They put in many hours attending meetings and conferences. They put in many hours when they are on call and when responding to an emergency. At times they seem to put in more hours volunteering than anything else in their lives. And it is all done without compensation and without fanfare. They just quietly go about their business, prepared but never knowing what they will encounter when they arrive on the scene of an emergency.
A recent example of this is what happened on Monday, January 7, 2008. The alarm went off at 11am for the Ambulance Corps and Fire Department to respond to an accident on the Taconic Parkway in the vicinity of Peekskill Hollow Road. Car A hit car B but instead of stopping, Car A continued on and caught fire. The driver of Car A had to be extracted from the car and was placed on the side of the road. When he regained consciousness he got up and started running. He spied the Peekskill Hollow Brook and jumped into it but unfortunately he did not realize how shallow it was and hit his head on the bottom!
He and the two other accident victims from Car B were taken to the hospital. The Kent Ambulance Corps, which also responded to the scene, took one of the accident victims to the hospital. The State Police closed down the Taconic from 11am to well past 5pm. The Putnam Valley Highway Department was called out to help divert traffic off the Taconic and down Bryant Pond Road. At times the traffic on the alternative route looked like a snake with headlight eyes.
Christmas eve the fire department was out because of a downed power line on Church Road, and they were out again on Christmas Day. It seems that a PVVAC and PVVFD volunteer's life is filled with constant interruptions.
Ambulance Corps Captain Sheryl Keating recently presented their 2007 year-end statistics which reflected a total of 725 calls for the year or 1.98 calls for each of the 365 days in the year. The number of calls in any one month ranged from a low of 37 calls in April to highs of 72 calls in June, 80 in July, and 83 in December. Captain Keating reports that on one day last month they had 9 calls in one day. Fortunately she says they were able to muster up enough three- and four-man crews to cover the back-to-back calls.
For the year 2007, PVVAC responded to 532 medical emergencies and 145 motor vehicle accidents. They transported 482 patients to the hospital and 5 "Statflight intercepts."
The Putnam Valley Ambulance Corps, in addition to answering all of their own calls, provides more "Mutual Aid" calls to other Corps than anyone else in Putnam County. In 2007 PVVAC responded to 115 mutual aid calls.
Fire Department Chief Louie Luongo told the PCN&R that in 2007 the Department responded to 407 incidents with an average of 16.34 firefighters per incident. This continues the high incident trend established over the past three years: 418 calls for 2005, 430 calls for 2006 (this is the record), and 407 for 2007. Prior to that the last time there were over 400 calls was back in 1997 when they had 428 calls.
Captain Keating and Chief Luongo attribute these high emergency response calls to the fact that of all the emergency units in Putnam County, Putnam Valley emergency services covers the largest stretch of the Taconic Parkway; "We cover a ten mile stretch from Route 301 by Fahnestock State Park to Route 6 in Mahopac."
In reporting the Putnam Valley Fire Department statistics, Chief Luongo provided a chart of responses by incident type. The volunteer training never ceases; they are constantly training to be prepared for all of the 61 incident types which range from Building Fires, Medical Assist, Gasoline or other flammable liquid spills, Chemical Hazard, Power line down, Person in distress, Police matter, HazMat investigation, and Alarm system activation.
Putnam Valley Ambulance and Fire volunteers respond to an inordinate number of emergency calls for a small town with a population of less than eleven thousand. They don't complain, but they do have one request - when you see a vehicle with a flashing blue, green or red light they would appreciate the courtesy of other motorists yielding them the right away.
In the Ambulance Corps and Fire Department log books these incidents were just another statistic for the start of the 2008 year. Hopefully, 2008 won't exceed 2007 because there is a limit to the number of calls they can handle with the volunteers available.
Despite the disruptions to their home and professional lives, the volunteers continue to give their time and energy to the community. The start of the New Year saw the election and installation of new officers who will lead the dedicated men and women of the PVVAC and the PVVFD. They and their crews deserve recognition and thanks from the community.
Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps Line Officers for 2008:
Captain- Sheryl Keating
First Lieutenant- Don Grasser
Second Lieutenant- Mike Moculski
Third Lieutenant- Peter Reczek
Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps Youth Corps Officers for 2008:
Captain- Berta Bumbolow
First Lieutenant- Frannie Sills
Second Lieutenant- Laina Ramsey
Third Lieutenant- Hannah Zimmerman
Putnam Valley Volunteer Fire Department Officers for 2008:
Chief - Louie Luongo
First Assistant Chief - Adam Savino
Second Assistant Chief - Shawn Keeler
First Lieutenant- David Anderson Jr.
Second Lieutenant- Brandon Gembecki
Second Lieutenant- Michael Kopenig
Second Lieutenant- Joseph Caruana
Fire Police Captain - Charlie Milo
Fire Police Lieutenant - Mario Peri
Fire Police Lieutenant - Joseph Marro Sr.
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