The Shaker Road-Loudonville Fire Department is celebrating 75 years of service to the area, its neighborhoods and businesses.
It all began March 11, 1932, when 30 residents met at a West Albany social club to form and elect the first officers of the new department. The following month, the district acquired the old Sunday School building on Albany Shaker Road and purchased a 1918 fire truck from the city of Albany. In its first year, the department responded to eight emergency calls.
`I was 18 years old. As soon as I was eligible I joined because that is what we did,` said John Brizzell, 55, a 38-year member of the department.
Brizzell, his brothers, Jim, 61, and George, 57, are all life members of the department. In all, 20 members of Brizzell’s family account for 500 years of service in the department.
`It was to give and help the community. It was fun and exciting and seemed like the right thing to do,` said Brizzell.
All members, whether 40-year veterans or those still in basic firemen training, share similar stories as to why they join. Most admit, though, that it is harder now than it was then to serve the community. There are stricter guidelines and certifications to meet, and many new recruits won’t make it past being told what is expected of them and how much of their time it may require.
Some members of the Shaker Road-Loudonville Fire Department, like the Brizzells, are of families that have been with it since the beginning. The department is still very much family-oriented, Brizzell said.
At the department’s 30-year mark, these families were more than sufficient in providing fire services to the area, said Brizzell. For one, there were on average 50 to 60 fires a year and more than 250 members in the department.
There were so many members, said Brizzell, the department had a waiting list.
That isn’t the case anymore. Many of Colonie’s `old farming families` like the Brizzell, Emerick and Unser families, despite three generations of service in the department, can’t tackle the more than 700 calls a year the department gets. Colonie’s other 11 departments fill the gap, but it’s becoming harder and harder to land volunteers.
`We are always looking (for recruits). We are trying to do recruiting at Siena College a lot. We are using our marquees, commercials,` said Chief Daniel Farrell.
Farrell, 39, joined the department in 1987.
The department has made it a habit to set up a table at Siena’s opening day. Sometimes they get students who are interested, other times they get volunteers.
`A lot of them always wanted to be a firefighter. They want to help people, and a lot of them move on to be career firefighters,` Farrell said. `It’s kind of like a family away from home. We have them for four years, they graduate and move on.`
Some stay.
Winston Roberts, 25, originally from Brooklyn, now living in Albany, is one of two new recruits who have dedicated themselves to the department full-time. Roberts and the other recruit bring the department’s volunteer core to 150.
`This is my first experience in fire service at all. It was one of those things, as a little kid you always wanted to be a police officer or a fire fighter. This is the first time I have done something in the Albany community. I figured if I’m going to be in this community anything I can do to help will be important to me,` said Roberts.
Roberts attended the University at Albany for both his under graduate and graduate degrees in education administration. A friend he went to school with at Albany joined the department and began telling Roberts about it.
Roberts said he was apprehensive at first, but he decided to talk to department volunteers about what he would be doing and what they would ask of him. As it turned out, his schedule and the fire department’s schedule worked out all right, he said.
Roberts does two overnight 12-hour shifts, twice a week, and reports to the station three to four times a week, he said. He is currently working through state and department required certifications to fight fires. He has yet to respond to a structure fire but has been out on several false alarms, he said. They are good for breaking the ice, he added.
Typically there are always two people at the department who are going through departmental screening, said Brizzell. Some make it on to certification and into the seats of responding emergency vehicles. Most of the work is routine, which is what department brass like, he said. But there are times that require the full extent of the department’s resources. What matters most is being prepared for those times, and that requires the `stability of age` and the `vitality of youth,` wrote department historian and 45-year department member, Bob Dawson.
The Shaker Road-Loudonville Fire Department will celebrate the milestone this summer in the shadow of the Hudson Valley Volunteer Fireman’s Association Convention scheduled for four days, beginning Wednesday, June 20. The convention draws as many as 20,000 volunteers to the area. It is the second time in 15 years the department has hosted the event.
Parades to shift traffic
Friday, June 22: The Mardi Gras Parade route will run from Albany Shaker Road at Williams Park Road (in front of the SRLFD) into The Crossings and will step off at approximately 7 p.m. As a result, Albany Shaker Road will be closed from Osborne Road to Maxwell Road from approximately 6:30 to 8 p.m. The recommended detour route will be Osborne Road to Old Niskayuna Road to Maxwell Road.
Saturday, June 23: The Dress Parade route will begin at Albany Shaker Road and Williams Park Road at approximately noon, and will march west to Wolf Road. It will continue south onto Wolf Road and turn east onto Metro Park Road. As a result, Albany Shaker Road from Osborne Road to Wolf Road will be closed and there will be one lane open in each direction on Wolf Road from Metro Park Drive north to Albany Shaker Road, from about 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Maps of the parade routes can be found on SRLFD’s Web site at www.shakerroadfire.com; click on the `Proud Sponsor: HVVFA 2007 Convention` or call SRLFD at 458-1352, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday to Friday.
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