Freeport Fire Department christens its newest truck

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Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy counted to 3 and swung the champagne bottle into the Freeport Fire Department’s newest fire truck, housed at Bayview Hose Company No. 3, smashing it against the front bumper. The truck, said Capt. Corey Cook, was “a long time coming.”

Officially christened by the mayor on Nov. 17, Truck 213 replaces a 1998 truck of the same make and model. The older truck has been retired, and its final “resting place” is pending a decision by the village board of trustees.

“This is going to better serve our neighborhoods,” said Erica Narbiez, 37, of Freeport. “The better [equipment the fire department] has, the better they can work. If it’s old, they can’t do their job. This is great.”

The christening ceremony for the new Ferrara pumper took place in front of the firehouse on South Bayview Avenue, with a blessing of the truck and Fire Department by FFD chaplains Robert Doiley and Eric Mallette.

A crowd of Freeporters clapped and cheered, along with elected village officials and Town of Hempstead and Nassau County representatives. After the bottle was cracked on the truck, neighboring village fire departments — Hempstead, Baldwin, Long Beach and others — sounded their own trucks’ sirens to welcome the new one into service.

The new pumper is an addition to the firehouse’s engine and high-water rescue apparatus. It is also equipped with a bell that has been passed on from rig to rig since 1993, engraved with the words “We always remember our past.”

Installing the bell, Fire Department Executive Director Ray Maguire said, was a way “to keep our history alive.”

“For the last nine years, the committee worked tirelessly to put together another quality piece of equipment that will surely last us, Mr. Mayor, for another 20 years,” Maguire said with a laugh.

The truck has a number of safety features mandated by the National Fire Protection Association and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and includes onboard data recorders, seatbelt warning devices, emissions-reduction units and additional firefighting equipment.

“It was a very long and arduous task to come up with the specifications for something like this,” Cook said. “It’s a piece of life-saving equipment, and it takes a lot of thought and effort into every minor detail.”