The History of the Glenwood H&L, E&H, Co., Inc

1977-1986

The Company was featured in a full page article in the Sunday New York Times in 1977 regarding a fire that occurred in North Shore Acres. The Chief at the time was Jeff Brown, son of Ex-Chief Al Brown, Jr. and the brother of Captain Emeritus Al Brown III. At age 30, Jeff was the youngest chief of a fire department on Long Island and possibly in New York State. Jeff was a very capable and innovative leader, as was his father before him. At the end of his two-year term Jeff became ill and was diagnosed with Leukemia. In June of 1980, Jeff lost his valiant battle against the cancer. At his funeral, nearly every member of the Company attended the services, filling every available seat in the Church of St. Rocco's in Glen Cove. The entourage stretched for more than two-miles, with every piece of the Company's apparatus in line. Each year at the Company's annual dinner, the member with the most alarm points is awarded the Jeff Brown Memorial Award, in honor of the activity Jeff displayed as a member and Chief of the Company.

In 1982, the Company celebrated its 75th Anniversaiy. As part of the anniversary celebration the Company - for the second time in as many years, hosted the annual Fifth Battalion Parade and Drill on June 19th The drill was held alongside of Station 2 during the day. The weather that day threatened to cancel the drill and the evening parade. All day long a steady drizzle persisted, but the drill teams voted to continue with the tournament. Late in the afternoon, the rain gave way to sunny skies, and the parade went off without a hitch.

The parade featured the eleven departments of the Fifth Battalion - Glenwood, Glen Cove, Sea Cliff, Roslyn Rescue, Roslyn Highlands, Locust Valley, East Norwich, Oyster Bay Company No.!, Bayville, Syosset and Oyster Bay Atlantic Steamers. The Port Washington Fire Department was also invited as special guests of Glenwood. There were many antiques in the line of march - Hempstead's 1918 Ford Chemical used by the Grand Marshal of the parade William Burnowski, Sea Cliff's 1920 Ford engine and Roslyn Rescue's Steamer.

The General Chairman of the Parade and Drill was Ex-Chief John Matthews, who did a superb
job as Chairman as did the entire 75th Anniversary Committee under Chairman William Swift, Jr. The entire event went off without a hitch, except for the weather, but Mother Nature cooperated with the committee and all the events took place as scheduled.

At the time of the 75th Anniversary the Company was led by Chief Robert Sokolski with a roster of 100 members operating eleven pieces of apparatus out of two stations.

The Gerstenlarger Heavy Rescue truck was replaced in 1982 with a new GMC Heavy Rescue truclç which was christened by 49-year member Frank Gozeiski at a wet down ceremony in front of Station 2.

The 1964 Dodge Maxium 750 g.p.m. pamper-Engine 535, was replaced in 1984 with a 1983 Pierce 1,250 g.p.m. TeleSqurt® and was also designated as Engine 535, the first due engine out of Station 2. With the addition of the TeleSqurt® to Glenwood's fleet, a new dimension was added to the company's firefighting capability -an engine with a 50-ft aerial ladder with a water flow capacity of 1,000 g.p.m. from the adjustable nozzle. The new 535, as with its predecessors, would become the workhorse of the Company at many working fires and mutual aid calls.

During the 1980's there were forces at work that would dramatically affect the fire service and in particular, the volunteer fire service - the Occupational Safety and Health Administration commonly referred to as OSHA. In its infancy OSHA dealt mainly with work and safety issues in the private sector. Then OSHA began to look at these issues in the government sector and that included the volunteer fire service. Also, the National Fire Protection Association [NFPAI issued guideline NFPA 1500 for the fire service to include both the paid and volunteer fire service.

The impact of these two entities on the fire service has greatly changed the face of the volunteer fire service. Growing up in Glen Head in the 1950's, I can remember the firefighters sitting up in the hose beds getting dressed in their turnout gear while responding to alarms; the men riding the back steps of the engines or riding along the sides of the old Seagrave aerial ladder as the apparatus rushed to the alarm of fire. You could tell if it was a house fire or a brush fire they were responding to - in those days the firefighters didn't always get dressed for brush fires, but, for house fires everyone got dressed. You could feel the urgency of the alarm, as the members furiously pulled on their boots and threw their turnout coats on. When I had the privilege to join Glenwood in 1971, this practice of riding on the apparatus still continued.