The Esopus fire department's impressive home in Ulster County. Photo via the Esopus Fire Department's website.
On Sunday, the Times Union dared to ask a troublemaking question in an editorial: In this era of budget-slashing, should we be cutting back on small-town fire departments?
From the editorial:
Under the best of circumstances, government consolidation inevitably touches some parochial nerves. Arguably, it doesn't get any more parochial than fire districts. They're typically made up of volunteers with a strong sense of mission, teamwork and fraternity. Often, firehouses aren't just a place to park the pumper. They're comfortable, even palatial, gathering spots with bars, pool tables and space for parties. Man (and, to be sure, woman) caves, with an attached garage. There are a lot of them -- 810 fire districts in the state, and 1,786 fire departments in all, according to the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control. That's more than the 1,550 cities, towns and villages they serve ...
Among Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga and Schenectady counties, there are 83 fire districts spread over 48 towns. How much extra equipment, how many more fire halls, how much administrative overhead does that add up to? How much extra fire protection is really achieved, particularly in towns with multiple districts within just a few miles of each other?
The editorial prompted a letter to the editor from Al Harris, who grew up in Sullivan County and remembers that local fire departments were just about the only thing his community had too much of during the Depression:
My early years were spent in the very small hamlet of Harris in Sullivan County. In those Great Depression days, we of course didn't have much in the way of employment or the other elements of the good life, but we did have great fire protection. Six miles to the south of us was Monticello with three fire companies; the town of Liberty six miles to the north had five.
