Village's Volunteers

By Andrew Salomon | Staff Writer

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The Rockville Centre Fire Department has relied on the same basic component -- volunteers -- since 1875, when Hook and Ladder Co. No. 1 was formed. But the volunteers of 1913, pictured at right, received a major boost when the department spent $700 for a ``motorized chassis'' to go under an existing wagon, according to Tony Walsh, a volunteer for Defender Hose Co. No. 1 and de facto historian for the department. Before that, volunteers either relied on horses or pulled the wagons themselves to fires.

Nowadays, a new truck with all the whistles and bells (and sirens) can cost well over $350,000, Walsh said.

Of course, the department has greater demands than it did at the beginning of the century. In 1908, volunteers responded to seven calls, Walsh said, compared with 2,200 last year.

There is another basic difference between 1913 and 1998: women volunteers. Eileen Lapkowski, on the third row's right side in the photo below, is one of five women in the 330-volunteer department. Rockville Centre has had female firefighters for about 10 years, said Chief John V. Murray, second from right in the front row. His uncle, at the far left of the front row, is Mayor Eugene Murray.