Rockville Centre Fire Department's coffee café improves morale, response time

A few dozen firefighters gathered at Reliance Hose Company No. 3 on Monday morning for coffee, bagels and the occasional alarm.

Louie Franco, a 46-member of the Rockville Centre Fire Department who served as its chief from 1991 to 1993, helped create the meeting place, which has become known as Reliance Coffee Café. A detective in the New York City Police Department for 35 years, he retired in 2015 and would join fellow Reliance member Scott Coyne at the firehouse for coffee on weekday mornings.

“We had a little tiny coffee pot, and then before you knew it, we started getting other people helping us out, everybody coming down,” Franco recalled.

The morning ritual is open to members of the department’s seven fire companies, and serves as a meeting place where retired members, shift workers or others with free time in the morning can gather in case there are calls to respond to.

At 10:30 a.m., about half a dozen firefighters filed out of the facility, hopping into vehicles to respond to an alarm on Roxen Road. Among them was Remy Jean-Francois, of Alert Engine and Hose Company No. 2, who later returned to the breakfast, noting that the residents at the home were working on their carbon monoxide alert system.

“A lot of the calls end up being like that,” he said, “but you’ve got to get out there and see what it is, because sometimes it’s something.”

Members sat at the firehouse garage’s couch or at surrounding tables, having breakfast, laughing and enjoying one another’s company. A radio sat nearby to alert the volunteer firefighters of a potential emergency.

“If we get an alarm or a motor vehicle accident, then we’ve got an immediate crew here,” said 48-year firefighter Ed Simpson, of Live Oak Engine Company No. 1. “It’s really helped out a lot getting the trucks rolling.”

“Camaraderie,” John Lamonica said, describing the breakfasts in a word. Lamonica, 66, of Defender Hose Company No. 1, serves in the department with his sons, John and Michael, who are part of Reliance. “Sometimes you’ve got 10 minutes, sometimes you’ve got an hour … but it’s just friendship and everybody getting together.

Ray Esposito, 91, who has served in the department for more than 60 years, said the breakfast allows the department to operate almost like a paid department for a few hours each morning. In the past, aside from “work nights,” and Sunday mornings, the members didn’t congregate too often, he noted.

Jim Avondet, of Defender, who is the department’s second assistant chief, looked around the room, noting the men and women who volunteer their time to keep the community safe.

“These are all great guys and girls from all different shapes and forms of life,” he said. “Everybody’s here because they want to be here.”