'The voice of Wantagh' retires

Seaford resident reflects on 54 years as fire district dispatcher

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After 54 years of dispatching for the Wantagh Fire District, Roger Harwood, of Seaford, retired this year from a job that he said offered him friends, family and a sense of purpose. 

Harwood was set to deliver a farewell speech over the department radio system at 8 p.m. on June 13. The 75-year-old had planned to regale Wantagh firefighters with tales that he’s heard throughout his years in the department.

Duty, however, called –– literally. An emergency was phoned in, and his speech had to be pushed back by 15 minutes. In the meantime, his friends and colleagues had gathered to hear him speak one last time.

“I had it all memorized, but then when I saw all the people, I got bashful, so I just read it,” he said. “Lots of people were listening because it was a history lesson, too.”

Afterward, fire volunteers had nothing but kind words for Harwood. Some had been listening to the man, known as “the voice of Wantagh,” since they were young, when they were beginning their tenures in the department. 

For one night, Harwood accepted the praise and remembered the good times. “It was just a job that I enjoyed,” he said. 

A career in dispatching

Harwood grew up in Wantagh. He joined the fire department in 1959, shortly before he graduated from Wantagh High School. He said that he met the love of his life, Fran, six years later.  

By the time Roger and Fran were married, they bought a house in Seaford — just two blocks away from his childhood home. Living in the Wantagh Fire District and continuing his work for the organization was simply what made sense to him. “I had an interest in the fire department, and my father was there,” he said.

Harwood became a dispatcher on May 1, 1962. He worked alongside his father, Roger Sr., at the dispatcher’s desk for 17 years before his dad died in 1978. The job — which required them to answer calls from the public for a fire or emergency, gather as much information as possible and relay it to the appropriate fire and emergency medical service units — was one they bonded over. 

“You have to remain calm and get all the information,” Harwood explained, noting that that’s easier said than done when the person on the other end of the phone is often panicking. 

Kevin Regan, the Wantagh Fire Department’s public information officer, noted that the dispatcher must also monitor all radio transmissions, call for additional resources as needed and listen to other radios for more information while coordinating a response.  They also record the times that firefighters leave and return to their stations. The data is then recorded in state reports. 

“Often, there are several incidents going on at the same time, making the job that much more challenging,” he said. “A dispatcher’s job often goes unrecognized and is often underappreciated, and in fact can be just as stressful as being at the scene of the emergency, if not even more so.”

From cats stuck in trees to power lines knocked down by hurricane-force winds and fierce fires, Harwood said that he’s heard it all. He fielded thousands of calls from people in distress in the district, which includes all of Wantagh; parts of Seaford, Levittown, East Meadow and Bellmore; and Jones Beach State Park and Tobay Beach.

One of the most historic events that Harwood worked through was Hurricane Sandy. He was one of four Wantagh dispatchers on call during the storm, answering seemingly endless calls for help. It was difficult “when two or three things were happening at once,” he said.

There were other challenges, Hardwood noted. There was a three-day rainstorm that hit the region in 2011. At the peak of the severe weather event, he was dispatching on his own, fielding dozens of calls for downed trees.   

“We were prepared for Sandy, but not for this one,” he said. “It was one that slid past the weathermen.” 

Harwood said he has so many stories that stick out in his mind, ranging from the first time Wantagh fire volunteers delivered a baby in the back of an ambulance to a propane tank overturning on the Seaford-Oyster Bay Expressway in 1987. He was off duty when the latter incident occurred near Sunrise Highway in Seaford. After noticing that all of the trucks weren’t parked at one of the local firehouses, Harwood walked inside and took over dispatching duties from another firefighter so that he could rush a ladder to the scene. 

‘We have a duet’

Through any incident, Regan said, Harwood had a special way of communicating with department members. He had quips — such as “we have a duet” when more than one unit had to be transmitted to an incident — for many different types of situations, which tipped members off to the fact that he was on duty. 

“He controlled the flow of radio traffic with precision and maintained calm in the midst of some of the most stressful situations,” Regan said. “His voice has always been one of the most recognized of all dispatchers, and if there was a Dispatcher’s Hall of Fame, Roger would be elected in the first round.”

Regan also noted that Harwood had to adapt to new technologies while on the job, as the district now uses computer-aided dispatching with GPS, route mapping, and other texting and alerting procedures. But he never missed a beat, Regan said, adding that Harwood was responsible for training all of Wantagh’s dispatchers. 

In 54 years, Harwood worked with 28 different chiefs. He said that he appreciated the respect that the department and district leaders gave him during meetings when he made suggestions about making changes to his job. 

Fran added that so many members of the fire department have impacted their lives in positive ways. “We acquired a lot of good friends from the fire department,” she said. “They were always there to be with you and lend a hand.”

Four years ago, friends and members threw Harwood a surprise party at Mulcahy’s Pub and Concert Hall to celebrate his 50th anniversary as a dispatcher. Many of them hung on every word of his farewell speech.

“I have made some longtime, close friends with department members and co-workers from past and present,” he announced over the airwaves. “I am leaving with some great memories.”