A few months ago, The South Shore Press (SSP) covered the Suffolk County volunteer firefighters who traveled to help with wildfires in New Jersey. With wildfires still raging in California, causing catastrophic devastation, we checked back in to get the perspective on those wildfires from the firefighters right here in Suffolk County.
SSP spoke with Bill Biondi, Commissioner of the Mastic Beach Fire Department, about preparedness, forest management, physical demands, and family concerns for their loved ones as they are out there fighting the fire.
SSP: When you first started seeing fires in California, as a fireman, what were your thoughts?
Biondi: The sad part is that people knew there was a big danger. Even Donald Trump said a while back, ‘You need to clean up your act and do some basic forestry maintenance.’
If you neglect to clean things you’re going to have a problem. The number of trees that are damaged from the bugs and standing dead is huge. They dry out and it's a perfect place to start a fire.
SSP: How are things handled here?
Biondi: One of the biggest things in the early 80s and 90s we used to have the Town of Brookhaven come in and open up fire trails for us. There was no other way you were getting in there to protect yourself or to protect the homes.
The Town did maintenance on bulldozing trees and opening up fire trails to where we're able to get pumpers in it without really no trouble at all.
SSP: I saw where California was not keeping up with fire trials.
Biondi: You got guys with million-dollar fire trucks and they can't get in there. Now you’ve got the forestry guys that are being dropped off and they're hoofing it. That adds to the fatigue of the firefighter and it takes away from actual firefighting time when you've got to walk and lug all your equipment.
That's time you are not fighting the fire. When you're way in the woods and you don't have a truck, you basically have a chainsaw and rakes. You’re setting backfires and hopefully, the backfire will burn up to where the fire is and it won't progress anymore. The problem with that is what a hundred-mile-an-hour winds there's no stopping it.
Even the best efforts can't fight back against the wildfires we had out in West Hampton a while back. Everybody thought we were going to stop it at the Sunrise Highway
We were one of seven trucks that were waiting for the fire to get to where we were. The chief says we're going to wet the area down and we're going to stop it. When the smoke settled I turned around and saw the fire had already jumped across all the lanes of the Sunrise Highway.
SSP: What do you think are the most important things a city or town can do tp prepare?
Biondi: Make sure your hydrants are properly working. Make sure your reservoirs are full. Look at California - they've diverted how many gallons of water?
SSP: How do volunteer fire companies communicate with municipalities or the state?
Biondi: If we have a situation, we'll approach the Town or the County. We had a situation two weeks ago where a fire was set off by homeless people living in the woods. We had to get six departments in there.
We communicate with the Town and tell them if the fire trails need to be cleaned out. Between the Town of Brookhaven and Suffolk County - they're right there for us. It's got nothing to do with politics. Democrat or Republican, once we requested something they jumped right on it.
SSP: Tell us about firefighting on a personal level.
Biondi: I'm watching the fires in California like everybody else. As you watch, you see these guys are dropped so far in that the only way you can see them is through drone videos. It’s scary.
It’s a lot of wear and tear on the body. Most of the time you're walking you carry your equipment for hours. Even if you can get a truck in hoses only reach so far. You're not going into the woods or up and down the mountains - at least not in Long Island.
SSP: How does that play out in the minds of firefighters and their families?
Biondi: People are worried about getting hurt, worried about colleagues dying. We have an app called Pulse Point and every time a call goes out it’s all over Facebook. There are a lot of people concerned about us.
Our conversation concluded with Biondo telling a story that illustrates how frightening being a firefighter is for loved ones. Back in 2003, he was chief of the department and he and his wife went out to dinner. When coming back “We got activated with a structure fire. I had to go and we pulled up away from the scene, but in perfect view of the fire.”
Biondi went out back and his wife stayed in the car and “All of a sudden it blows up. My wife comes out of the car screaming ‘where's my husband’ and I happen to be in the back of the house doing a survey of the house. I came out and I could hear screaming with all the commotion. Everybody's running.”
After that, “She said, that's enough. You're a freaking idiot. I didn't realize that your job was this bad.” Biondi said that’s when he became a Fire Commissioner.”