By: JOSEPH KELLARD
Drive down Columbus Avenue in the northeast section of Oceanside, and you'll find a firehouse nestled among the homes. Terrace Hose & Chemical Co. No. 3, a 76-year-old company, stands out in both this residential area and the Oceanside Fire District.
On a recent Thursday night, when the Herald visited the firehouse, one of its two engine trucks was out, as some of the company's 42 active memebers were off training at the Oceanside Country Club, one of several sizable establishments in town where Terrace plans for fires. At this site, the firefighters practiced drafting, a procedure in which hose line is put into large bodies of water, which Terrace employed in recent years to extinguish fires at the Gulf Oil (1996) and Gator Recycling (2002) facilities on the industrial side of town.
Terrace is one of just two companies in the OFD that use drafting and respond to propane-related emergencies, and it is the company that carries the most 5-inch supply hose (about 1,800 feet on both its trucks).
Among the larger structures where it lugs these hoses for practice and potential use is South Nassau Communities Hospital, where about 50 of Terrace's 500 yearly calls are made, either to ensure malfunctions don't develop into fires or to stand by when a helicopter drops off airlifted patients. The company has similar responsibilities for pre-planning at Schools 3 and 5 and the Bishop-Kellenberg senior homes on Long Beach Road.
"I call our guys here professionals at a volunteer's salary," said Steve Kramer, captain of Terrace.
Terrace's volunteer force includes members whose professions range from NYPD firefighters and police officers to computer programmers and accountants. Robert Bettes, who joined Terrace in 1972 and ranks seventh in the company's seniority, is chief of the department, and Dennis E. McGlynn, chairman of the Board of Fire Commissioners, joined Terrace in 1999 (after serving with Columbia Engine No. 1 for several years). Vinny Staffa is Terrace's first lieutenant, and Tom McCarty is second lieutenant.
In September 2001, Terrace sent five members to help with the search and rescue mission at the World Trade Center, and it was the only company in Oceanside to participate in snuffing out the wildfires in West Hampton in 1995.
Last summer, Terrace members suffered injuries at the large and explosive fire at Oceanside Industries, a mass laundry service. More than 20 OFD firefighters came away with either serious smoke inhalation or burns. For Kramer, that fire's aftermath made it the worse he'd ever encountered. "I saw one of my guys come out of that building collapse, and I thought he was going to die," he recalled in the firehouse meeting room, whose paneled walls are adorned with photos of all its fire engines from decades past.
"Some of the guys in this department who have been in for 15 or 20 years have never see someone die in a fire," said Lou Hiland, a former chief of the OFD, "but to come upon someone who has been burned up is a traumatic experience."
After that fire, Terrace members were provided counseling for such experiences at the firehouse as part of the company's weekly Thursday-night training sessions. Thankfully, these types of services aren't often needed; instead, on most Thursdays, firefighters are out training are listening to guest speakers, such as one from the Nassau County Fire Marshal's office who recently showed a video on propane fires to prepare them for the barbecue season. Otherwise, they can be found training at the Nassau County Fire Academy in Bethpage, where they may learn how to extricate people trapped in a crashed vehicle or how to proceed in the event of a biological or chemical terrorist attack.
"The firefighters here train religiously," said Robert Bettes, chief of the Oceanside department, who joined Terrace in 1972 while still in high school. "They're out there in the dead of winter training."
Terrace was established by 12 charter members in 1928 in the building that today houses a deli on Nassau Parkway. Two years later Terrace moved to its present location on Columbus, which back then was a mere single garage. Terrace members collectively owned the building all those years, until expensive roof repair forced them to sell it to the district in 1999. In recent years the company has had two engine trucks running out of Terrace, and in recent months it began responding to EMT-type calls.
"It's really a close-knit family," Bettes said. "Everyone here becomes part of your family."
Bettes himself is from a family line of Terrace firefighters. His father and brother, Charles and Tom, were both Terrace members, and his daughter, Nicole, will join the company when she turns 18 in June. Ashley Smith, the daughter of Joe Smith, a firefighter with Terrace, became the first female member of the company last September.
"It's really exciting," Smith said of her time fighting fires with the company. "I always wanted to be in the department. It's in my blood. And the guys here are like my older brothers and fathers."
