Firefighters’ contest aids kids with cancer

Local fire departments are to flex their firefighting muscles Saturday in competitive drills at a charity event hosted by Bayville Fire Company 1.

The Battle by the Bay, set to begin at noon on Centre Island Beach, will bring together more than 20 local departments to face off in 10 timed drills that include climbing ladders and breaking down fire hoses, Bayville fire officials said.

“It’s a competition of fire skills,” Henry Encarnacion, a Bayville firefighter and chairman of the charity drill committee, said Thursday. “The last event of the night is what they call buckets.”

Competitors carry large buckets of water — similar to the ones firefighters of yore used to put out blazes — down a track and pass them up a ladder to teammates in an effort to fill a 50-gallon tank, Encarnacion said. “It’s a lot of fun, a lot of laughs,” he said. “Everyone is getting wet.”

The Bayville fire company organized the event in conjunction with the Bayville-based nonprofit Matthew Fetzer Foundation, named for a boy who died in 2005 after a battle with cancer. No admission fees will be charged, but proceeds from food, drink and T-shirt sales will benefit children with cancer, officials said.

Live entertainment, food and drinks will follow, officials said. Participating fire departments include Orient Point, North Massapequa, Malverne, Locust Valley, Roslyn and Medford.

Above: Bayville Fire Company 1