MONTICELLO – As a direct reaction to recent large-scale fires in Sullivan County, the Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee of the Sullivan County Legislature introduced a resolution last week to authorize the use of the Department of Public Works (DPW) fuel supply truck to refuel local fire departments at large scale incidents. 

Sullivan County DPW maintains a fuel supply truck that is equipped to transport and dispense fuel to County vehicles and equipment in emergencies. 

As a result of the authorization, County Manager Josh Potosek, in collaboration with Commissioner of Public Safety Scott Schulte and Commissioner of Public Works Ed McAndrew, may request the use of the DPW fuel supply truck to assist fire departments in a situation where fuel support is needed. 

District 6 Legislator Luis Alvarez, Chair of the Public Safety and Law Enforcement Committee, stated that at the Old Pines Hotel fire in Fallsburg last month, fire departments that responded to the fire ran out of fuel. 

“The trucks came from Middletown and other areas, and they were in a situation where there was no way of fueling those trucks,” explained Alvarez. “The towns and the local fire departments did not have the capability of doing so, so they turned it over to the county and asked the county what we could do.” 

Alvarez noted that this ability to use the DPW fuel supply truck was already used at the recent Grahamsville fire at Peekamoose Road and Whitehouse Road that ultimately spanned over 600 acres of land between Sullivan and Ulster Counties. 

“They were running out of fuel and the five-gallon cannons they were using were not sufficient,” Alvarez said. 

The resolution, which passed through the committee unanimously, also notes that the DPW will charge back the appropriate towns, at cost, for the fuel supplies

during these incidents. 

Latest on wildfires, 

burn ban 

As the Democrat previously reported, there is currently a statewide burn ban in effect until November 30 as announced by Governor Kathy Hochul last week. Sullivan County also remains in a Drought Watch - the first of four levels of State drought advisories (Watch, Warning, Emergency, Disaster). 

“Please, please do not burn,” Sullivan County Fire Coordinator John Hauschild said. “It is extremely, extremely dry.”

While going over recent fires, Hauschild said that the fire in the Grahamsville Fire District is under control, but there are still some hot spots. He gave a shoutout to everyone involved in containing the fire. 

“On Friday [November 8] we had 30 departments there with over 200 firefighters, Saturday we had 24 departments there with 132 firefighters and EMS personnel, Sunday we had 24 departments with 185 firefighters and EMS workers and Monday we had 18 departments with 68 firefighters,” Hauschild said. “It’s a huge undertaking at a major incident like that. We had Sullivan County Division of Public Safety, Ulster County Emergency Services, Ulster County Emergency Management, both County DPWs and our county rehab team to help our firefighters. We also had our County EMS, Neversink and Grahamsville EMS, Ulster County EMS, New York State [Department of Environmental Protection], Sullivan and Ulster County Sheriff’s Offices, Central Hudson, the New York State Incident Management team, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Office of Fire Prevention and Control, Office of Interoperability, AT&T and Town of Neversink Highway Department.”

Hauschild also noted that they had activated the New York State Fire Mutual Aid plan last Saturday, meaning that if they used up all of their resources within the county and neighboring counties, they can pull from every county in the state. 

“I want to give a huge shoutout to our 9-1-1 center, they were absolutely amazing at all of these incidents,” said Hauschild. “They just do an outstanding job and they don’t get thanked enough.”

Hauschild also said that Sullivan County was requested under the State Fire Mutual Aid plan to see availability to help containment at the Orange County Fire at Greenwood Lake. He said that they had four departments in Sullivan County ready to go from Saturday through Monday. 

That fire in Orange County has continued to escalate and due to it going near homes, dozens of residents had to evacuate over the weekend. Flames broke through a section of the containment line on Friday evening, but the firefighters helped to protect the line and avoid it from reaching any structures thus far, according to published reports out of Orange County.  

However, Orange County Department of Emergency Services Commissioner Peter Cirigliano II reported that there is no definite end in sight unless there is a solid rain or snowfall to fully soak the land.