Allegany County First Responders respond to downstate crisis

On Monday November 11th at approximately 1:00 p.m. Allegany County was notified that resources had been requested to deploy to the Orange County wildfire. This fire has already consumed approximately 2500 acres with many being called in from around New York State. After a canvass of resources, I am proud to say that Allegany County is deploying 7 Hand Crews to the incident. A Hand Crew consists of 5 members with brush firefighting equipment that includes shovels, rakes, brooms and other equipment. They will be working in mountainous conditions. These units are scheduled to be deployed on-site for 12 hours. It is their intentions to converge at a specified rally point before convoying together for the nearly 4 ½ hour drive to their destination. Units will be working directly with other volunteer agencies, State agencies, and Law Enforcement. Units that are deploying are from Richburg, Allentown, Clarksville, Cuba, New Hudson, Willing and Wellsville. Wes Sortore, District 2 Deputy Fire Coordinator, will also be deploying with these units as well and act as a direct liaison to the deployed units and myself at the Incident Command Post. All members that are being deployed come from complete volunteer organizations and are doing this at on their own time, taking away from work and families. I commend them all for stepping up and supporting their fellow firefighters in a time of need. 

Bill Day 

Allegany County Fire Coordinator