Round Lake (NY) Sutphen Solutions

BY MICHAEL N. CIAMPO

As with many areas that were once rural within proximity to a large city, the chance for them rapidly growing into a bedroom and commuter community is quite likely, especially if you’re located in the Capital District of New York State. Round Lake, New York, is a village in Saratoga County just north of Albany.

It’s a quaint little village that was once just a summer retreat haven for many enjoying time on the round lake. Since that lake provided so much enjoyment, it had numerous cottages strewn along the lakeside. As with many historic fire events that have led to the creation of a fire department, a tragic fire in 1886 destroyed three prominent people’s homes on the lake and led to the creation of the M.B Sherman Hose Company. Its original apparatus was a two-wheeled hose cart with two sizes of hose, and it later acquired another to provide additional protection to the community.

Over the years, the village just off Exit 11 on Interstate 87 (Adirondack Northway) has seen abundant growth in residential homes and complexes, light commercial buildings, and traffic. To compensate for that growth, the Round Lake and Malta Ridge Fire Departments, which both needed to upgrade their substations, formed the Fire Companies of Malta and are cohabiting a large new modern firehouse. In addition to sharing the substation, the departments have cross-trained their members on the apparatus and drill together to form more unity in tactics and procedures. In addition, with these items in place, they’ve allowed each department’s members to respond on either department’s apparatus, helping with staffing shortages in the volunteer response spectrum.

The Round Lake Fire Department has experienced a building boom in its response area, and its apparatus were becoming antiquated to meet the needs of fire protection as well as coming toward the end of their first-line service years. Its American LaFrance quint with 75-foot ladder needed to be replaced—refurbishing the apparatus was out of the question. Plus, with the building of two complexes of 15 wood-frame buildings three stories high with long hallways requiring long hoseline stretches and having numerous balconies and tight parking lots, the department saw a need to upgrade its apparatus, equipment, and tactics to continue providing proper fire protection to the residents of the communities it serves. With widespread growth, its main fire station needed to be rebuilt to maintain coverage on both sides of its response district. To come up with some solutions, the department formed an apparatus committee three years ago that put in countless hours of research and looked into what would meet the department’s needs to handle this building boom.

After looking into many options for apparatus, the department felt that it would need to replace its aging quint and add an additional engine-tanker. According to Chief Frank Mazza, the quint concept had worked so well for the department in the past that the committee felt it was best to continue operating with that concept.