LI's haunted firehouses aim for the spooktacular

Come October, Valley Stream firefighter Steve Acquavella dons a different uniform.

His face painted white, with charcoal details smudged into his cheeks, he drapes a floor-length black robe from his shoulders and holds a staff.

Then, he gets to work - at the department's haunted firehouse.

"They're coming to get scared, and that's what we do," said Acquavella, an ex-chief and one of the dozens of firefighters who work to put on the event. "When people are not expecting it, they look right in my face and jump about three feet."

Valley Stream's is one of at least four haunted firehouses on Long Island - along with North Babylon, North Patchogue and Bayville - that spend months transforming houses into the sinister and spooky.

The devil is in the details: rooms with moving skeletons in barbershop chairs, creaking caskets and hanging clowns, red noses and streaked masks. The departments not only have a large available space, but also dozens of volunteers to seamlessly pull off the scare.

Admission at Valley Stream ranges from $5 for children to $10 for adults, money the departments say pays for the yearly house and also funds new equipment.

"It's our one fundraiser," said Jeremy Thomas, the haunted house chair for the North Patchogue Fire Department. "It pays for itself, and then the money is put back to the department fund."

Thomas estimated the event brings in about $10,000 a year and costs about $2,000, with the proceeds used to buy supplies for the department. Local high school kids also get involved, acting in the house in exchange for community service hours.

In Bayville, where the haunted house has been a fixture for nearly two decades, the production cost can range from $10,000 to $25,000 and is funded from the previous year's admission, said Henry Encarnacion, the haunted house chairman. The rest of the money goes to pay for items the department needs, he said, listing such items as wetsuits, truck parts and even an ambulance.

The number of visitors fluctuates, with the weather a big factor, but anywhere from 10,000 to 16,000 will walk through the doors each year.

The responsibility for a scare isn't one they take lightly. Each room is graded on how well it did and rooms are switched out every two or three years. After watching a scary movie, Bayville committee members have been known to e-mail others with new ideas. About 60 actors help make the fright.

"You've got to have a little sick mind and enjoy Halloween to come up with some of these ideas," Encarnacion said.

One new item on tap in the house: a waterfall with a surprise popping out.

"Let's keep it a secret," Encarnacion said. "It's really the enjoyment that people get from the surprise."

The work at the Valley Stream haunted house starts in July, with the transformation beginning on the floor at Engine Co. No. 2. With firefighters who have so many skills in their day jobs, there's never a shortage of carpenters, painters and electricians to bring the house to life.

"We have so many jack of all trades," said ex-chief Ed Roth.

For a few months, five nights a week, the volunteers bonded over dinner and details like the placement of strobe lights and smoke machines and just how much spider webbing to hang.

The money raised goes to department needs, funding future haunted houses and then a portion is donated to the department's Ladies Auxiliary and the local chapter of the Nassau County Auxiliary Police, organizers said.

But for the volunteers, there's nothing like watching as the unsuspecting wend through the maze inside.

"Even the biggest guys go down," said Valley Stream firefighter Andrew Schmer. "We had a guy run into his wife just to get out of the way."