The Rockland County Chief’s association acknowledged area firefighters and handed out awards this past week, a time when firefighters across Rockland County were celebrated.
Photo from collage at SloatsburgFire.org
New City Fire Department Chief Kenny Flynn was named Chief of the Year. Gordon Wren Sr., former chief of the all-volunteer Hillcrest Fire Department and member for some 70 years, was awarded the Jerome Trachtenberg Service Award, presented to the person who promotes outstanding service to the Rockland County Fire Chief’s Association.
Outgoing SFD Chief Nello Vacchiano / Photo by Kim Kanasky
And closer to home, the Sloatsburg Fire Department held its annual meeting Tuesday to elect new officers, including incoming Chief Joseph Vega, First Assistant Chief Christopher Morse and Second Assistant Chief Matthew Stritmater.
Outgoing Chief Nello Vacchiano will be celebrated at a Saturday event during the installation of the department’s officers. Vacchiano has served as chief of the department since 2011. Vacchiano will now takes his place on the impressive wall of chiefs in the Sloatsburg Fire Hall (and his food fare will be featured nightly at Sunnyside’s Bar and Grill where he serves as head chef).
This year, the Sloatsburg Fire Department celebrates 90 years of continued service to not only the village but surrounding communities.
The new generation of line officers, including Vacchiano, Morse and Vega, have worked in tandem with the department’s civil officers over the past several years to make crucial equipment and apparatus investments at the firehouse, including a state-of-the-art Red Alerts records management communications center right at the fire house. The system digitally tracks all fire calls.
Paid for mostly by coins raised during the SFD’s annual fund drive, the Red Alert dispatch system is managed by new Second Assistant Chief Stritmater, a third generation Sloatsburg firefighter. The system includes a partial GPS system that allows the department to track call locations throughout the village. Additionally, Red Alert helps the department to help track local fire hydrants.
Stritmater also manages the SFD’s website, which he has been progressively upgrading and enhancing, and currently features a thread of recent SFD calls.
