Highlights from the 125th anniversary parade of the Valley Stream Volunteer Fire Department

“Who could stop the fire?”

For Valley Stream residents in 1898, that question no doubt weighed heavily on their minds as they watched Bergman’s Bakery, on Rockaway Avenue, go up in flames.

Without an organized fire department, there was no answer. No heroic intervention would come. The bakery was left to turn into a fiery furnace. Its engulfing flames burned for weeks on end “as a consequence of the coal which was stored in the cellar,” village historian Carol McKenna wrote in a village anthology documenting the event.

The devastation invariably served as a wake-up call to residents about the threat posed by unchecked fires, former fire chief Richie Sullivan noted. Now, the next pressing question was how this community
of mostly farmers would work to avert future disasters involving fire. 

The answer, which came on August of that year, was the Nassau Hook & Ladder Company #1.

The company, composed of a motley crew of men, would eventually grow into the village’s modernized Valley Stream Volunteer Fire Department replete with seven fire companies and staffed by roughly 250 volunteer firefighters.

Earlier this month, commemorating 125 years of its history of service, the department honored its members, past and present, with a parade, vintage fire truck show, and live music. The roads were cleared from Fire Headquarters at 49 Rockaway Parkway as marching bands tooted their horns, fire engines honked, and uniform-clad firefighters paraded proudly through the village streets ending their march at the Village Green.

Residents, many sun-washed in shorts and sunglasses, lined the sidewalks of the parade route applauding and cheering on the display. Sullivan, with a sash around his uniform, served as the parade’s Grand Marshall.

“For 125 years, brave patriots have been volunteering their time to fight fires for this community,” said Fire Chief Patrick Scanlon reflecting on the significance of the day. “At the drop of a dime, they’re here to come out and give up time to serve your community and your family.”

Throughout the course of its long history, the department has shown an incredible capacity to evolve in tandem with the village it serves. Much of that is thanks to things like organized chain of command, enhanced simulation training, and of course vast improvements over the last 125 years in the tools designed to guard against potential fires and quell them when they sprout.

Alarm systems, pressurized water hoses, and self-contained breathing apparatus make it far easier and safer for fire crews to detect and battle a host of fire emergencies. During the earliest era of Valley Stream firefighters, noted Sullivan, they “would race their horse-drawn wagons to the firehouse upon an emergency and transport buckets of water” to battle blazes.

But just as time brought new advances, it has also presented new challenges for the department whose host village is far larger and more densely populated than ever before.

With 40,000 residents, “there are more people living in Valley Stream and the workload has definitely increased,” said Scanlon, pointing to the fact that an area with a higher concentration of people generally runs a higher risk of fires. “I mean the call volume alone has gone up two or three years even with the pandemic.”

Fire officials noted the department responds to upwards of 1,000 fire alarm calls every year, though an increasing portion has been false alarms. Yet even those, fire officials note, still require fire crews to conduct safety inspections to confirm the building’s integrity. And aside from logistical obstacles thrown at the department, the personal toll that the job imposes on individual members and their families has grown steeper, noted Scanlon.

“The simple fact of the matter is, it’s even harder for our people who have two, or three jobs, in the middle of a recession, and no one is really doing great,” said Scanlon. “So, it’s really a testament to the community and all the people that live in the community that we’re here showing up as volunteers,” dutifully stepping into the line of danger for them.

Sitting at the root of the department’s heroism is its longstanding tradition of sacrifice and devotion that has kept it alive, noted Sullivan, during its best days and its worst.

“Our biggest contribution would be the loss of six of our members in service to the community as firefighters in its 125-year history,” said Sullivan. “There can be no bigger contribution than that.”

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