Water Rescue During Hurricane Earns Firefighters Top Award
The volunteer members of the North Highlands Fire Department and the Cold Spring Fire Company were named Firefighters of the Year for 2011 by the Putnam County Volunteer Firemen’s Association after successfully completing two swift water rescues in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene last August.
The North Highlands Department called in the Cold Spring Fire Company that day for assistance after news was received that a dam in Fahnestock State Park was in imminent danger of bursting, with two homes in its path that already had knee-deep water rushing around them.
But with the Hudson River also rising fast and flowing over the waterfront, Cold Spring Fire Company Chief Matthew Steltz said he did not want his crew to leave the village unattended.
“When they said it was life-threatening, we went,” he said.
What they found were a family of four trapped inside of their home.
“We had to assist them to get through the rising water,” Steltz said, adding that the water was knee-high and moving extremely fast. “If they had fallen, they would have been swept away and kept going.”
The firefighters hooked up ropes and established safety lines with the clock ticking.
“It was a race against time,” Steltz said, adding that, thankfully, the dam’s integrity remained intact.
Steltz said the volunteers in the Cold Spring Fire Company are trained for water rescues, as the department is located just blocks from the Hudson River.
“We train for water rescues, but this was a swift water rescue,” Steltz said. “We are familiar with ropes, but this was out of the ordinary.”
Nonetheless, all of the first-responders and the home owners got out safe and sound at the two different locations.
Once on dry land, a call came in for a possible structure fire and the volunteer firefighters raced to the next call.
“Everything was so chaotic,” Cold Spring Fire Chief Matthew Steltz said of that day.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
