LAKE HUNTINGTON, NY — The volunteer firefighters at the Lake Huntington Fire Company respond to structure blazes and often fatal motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), as well as routine and less stressful calls such as downed wires or rescuing cats stuck in trees.

The company was incorporated in 1937.

The current chief is Mike Pomes, who has been a member for 16 years, and past chief Jason Kraack has been with the department going on 36 years. Before that, he served as chief for 18 years.

As with many volunteer fire departments, the current assistant chief followed in his father’s bootsteps. Ed Kraack, 76, will have seen 55 years of active service later this year.

“I joined 60 years ago to help out the community; they needed help and I was around, so I joined,” recalled the company’s oldest active firefighter.

Asked the delicate question about incidents involving fatalities, Ed Kraack responded, “We’ve been to a couple where there’s been fatalities, [people] found in houses, and no matter what, it’s always on your mind.”

On that subject, his son said that when they respond to a “bad call, the older guys, the team leaders” encourage the less experienced members to express their feelings, “so the younger generation understands what they are feeling and seeing, [understanding] what’s going through their heads.

“If you don’t feel these feelings, you’re not human,” he added. “You need to figure out a way to deal with it… put it in a little file and answer the next calls.”

Speaking with the voice of experience tested by responding to fatal fires and MVAs, the 55-year veteran and former chair of the Board of Fire Commissioners said, “Some of the calls, you can’t go to sleep because you’re thinking about it.”

“I can’t pull hose anymore, but I still drive apparatus,” he added. 

Asked about the state-mandated training requirements, he said “I think we’re in trouble because of all the requirements they are putting on us. The volunteers are not here; it’s the same people doing all the work. It is hard, people are burning out… a fire company can’t respond with five, six, seven people.” 

Perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The fire company has gained several cadets as part of a program in which youth 14-15 years old can join and attend drill nights and respond to calls, but must be in good standing at school.

“It gives them a sense of what it’s like to be a volunteer firefighter, and hopefully they will stay with it,” said Chief Pomes. He noted that at present the department has two 15-year-old cadets, and three junior firefighters (16 to 18 years old) who attend Sullivan West High School.

To put parents at ease: “School is number one; the primary goal is education,” he said. The department kicks them out the door with a 9 o’clock curfew on drill nights. It also ensures the younger firefighters are closely mentored by the veterans.

Chief Pomes said that as a 17-year-old, he stopped by the station one night and signed up. “I’ve been here ever since.”

As to recruitment and retention, he said that at present the department has about 18 to 19 members, reflecting a decline over the years.

“We gain some; lose some. Back when Jason was growing up, there were a lot more jobs in town,” said Pomes, reflecting on the way in rural parts of the country, residents area forced to leave the area to find employment.

Assistant Chief Jason Kraack has been involved with the Lake Huntington Fire Department since he was about six or eight years old. “My father Ed was chief for years and years, and I just sort of tagged along. I was in the firehouse all the time,” he recalled, adding that at the age of 16, he joined as a junior firefighter. 

Asked what a volunteer fire department does for its community, Jason Kraack said, “The fire service gives back everything the community needs. If somebody needs something, the first place they call is the firehouse or 911: a house fire, a cat in a tree, water in the basement, wires down or ‘I can’t figure out how to turn my alarm off’.”

Both veteran firefighters said there’s a perplexing problem. Many new residents are accustomed to being served by paid fire departments. “When the siren goes off, people are there,” but they don’t realize that it takes time for local volunteer firefighters to drop what they are doing—like working jobs for a living—and respond to their fire station, gear up and drive the emergency apparatus to the scene.

All under the heading that sometimes folks don’t realize that volunteers take time away from their families. In the words of Chief Pomes, “To respond to help them out in their worst times… we’re trying to make the best of it for them.”

Assistant Chief Kraack thinks part of the solution is “more articles, more press to get the word out.” And as a result, perhaps folks “would think: maybe I should go over [to the fire station] on a training night to see what’s happening, and join.”