The Wellsville Fire Department firefighters start work at 7am Tuesday
7 Teams from Allegany County will deploy to Orange County early Tuesday morning
By Andrew Harris
The Town of Wellsville Emergency Coordinator Chris Martelle explained that a five man team will be leaving for Greenwood Lake NY with the famous “brush buggy” unit. Fire Chief Rodney Winans will lead a crew of Tony Guyot, Petyon Day, Bill Day III, and Bryce Schoonover into a dangerous wildfire. Most of the crew, including the Chief, have just ended working a 16 hour overnight shift to provide coverage during a rare power outage in the Village of Wellsville.
“The are taking a nap and getting ready to leave town to start a 12 hour shift at 7am in Greenwood Lake,” explained Martelle.
Latest local reports indicate the fire is on 15% contained and has claimed at least one life.
CBS News reported that an 18 year old parks employee, Dariel Vasquez, died on Saturday fighting the fire.
Read more and see images from Jennings Creek Fire which spread into Orange County NY and has burnt over 5000 acres so far.
Wellsville isn’t the only department sending manpower and equipment to the wildfire areas. Allegany County Fire Coordinator William Day Jr, sent this report of deployments and added, “I am very proud of Allegany County Fire Service:”
On Monday November 11th at approximately 1:00 p.m. Allegany County was notified that resources had been requested to deploy to the Orange County wildfire. This fire has already consumed approximately 2500 acres with many being called in from around New York State. After a canvass of resources, I am proud to say that Allegany County is deploying 7 Hand Crews to the incident. A Hand Crew consists of 5 members with brush firefighting equipment that includes shovels, rakes, brooms and other equipment. They will be working in mountainous conditions. These units are scheduled to be deployed on-site for 12 hours. It is their intentions to converge at a specified rally point before convoying together for the nearly 4 ½ hour drive to their destination. Units will be working directly with other volunteer agencies, State agencies, and Law Enforcement. Units that are deploying are from Richburg, Allentown, Clarksville, Cuba, New Hudson, Willing and Wellsville. Wes Sortore, District 2 Deputy Fire Coordinator, will also be deploying with these units as well and act as a direct liaison to the deployed units and myself at the Incident Command Post. All members that are being deployed come from complete volunteer organizations and are doing this at on their own time, taking away from work and families. I commend them all for stepping up and supporting their fellow firefighters in a time of need.
– Bill Day, Allegany County Fire Coordinator
Allegany County Chairman W. Brooke Harris added,
“I’m not surprised to hear that Allegany County’s volunteers are stepping up once again to help those in need. In 2022, our firefighters went to Erie County to assist in response to a major snowstorm. Earlier this year they traveled to Tioga County in the aftermath of Hurricane Debby.
We have a long history of helping our neighbors and fellow New Yorkers. It’s important to recognize that these volunteers are leaving their families, their jobs, and their normal lives simply because it’s the right thing to do. We know that they’ll perform their jobs well, and we hope that they all stay safe.”
We wish all our local volunteers well and hope they return safely when the work is done.
