In August 1955, a group of 35 South Bay residents mortgaged their homes to build a concrete firehouse and purchase a $3,000 tanker to protect the residents on the south shore of Oneida Lake.
Sixty years and 15,000 calls later, the South Bay Fire Department is still going strong.
South Bay boasts notable alumni such as former town supervisor Chet Dudzinski, a fire police lieutenant, and current Town Councilor Vern Conway, who served as chief from 1974 to 1976 and from 1985 to 1987.
SBFD is unique in that it is one of the few local fire departments that answers water rescue calls and maintains snowmobile rescue sleds.
“We have a lot of exciting things happen on the water,” Chief Dan DeLargy said. “We’re really diverse.”
DeLargy said South Bay and the Brewerton both have officers trained in cold water rescue. South Bay has mutual aid agreements with various local fire departments. He said South Bay can “do it all” — answering calls in the woods, swamp, lake and more — but not without the help of its fellow rescue agencies.
“You absolutely have to have good people in place or you’re not going anywhere. We get along well with our mutual aid companies,” DeLargy said.
Despite the department’s longevity and its lineup of “good people,” DeLargy said SBFD is up against its strongest challenge yet: retaining recruits.
“Recruitment’s real hard. The state — every year they mandate a little more out of our younger guys,” DeLargy said. “[The training course] Firefighter 1 is getting tougher and tougher. Young people are busy. They don’t want to be tied down.”
DeLargy said many young recruits move to other areas when they can’t find affordable housing in the South Bay Fire District.
“They’ve moved into houses they can afford in other districts and joined those departments,” he said.
Fortunately, SBFD has a core crew of volunteers who are in it for the long haul.
“Once they join they tend to stick around,” DeLargy said. “The important part is right now we have people to man all our vehicles and apparatus. We always need more, but at this point, we have enough to maintain our coverage to South Bay.”
DeLargy has been with SBFD for more than 20 years. He said he initially joined for the adrenaline rush that came with fighting fires, but over time, the fire department has evolved into a place with a more serious sense of duty.
“Helping people is definitely rewarding,” he said. “Knocking down a big fire and saving most of a house is rewarding.
“It’s changed so much in the last 20 years. It’s a real business now. It was pretty lax — a long time ago firemen were dubbed big partiers,” DeLargy recalled.
Nowadays, firefighters must complete more training and educational courses to keep up with the many facets their job requires. DeLargy said as a rookie firefighter he was reluctant about answering medical calls, but he eventually went to EMS school as medical services became a more integral part of the job.
“Just the other night, we were at a house with a heroin overdose and we were able to bring a guy back — it worked,” DeLargy said. “It was pretty neat. It was 4 o’clock in the morning. It was amazing. You just hope they get the help they need. It certainly takes a lot of your time, but well worth it. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t want to.”
