LAGRANGE – The LaGrange Fire District, led by a board of fire commissioners, is working with the to meet the needs of the growing town. The district on Tuesday voted to hire four applicants to become firefighter/paramedics for the fire department, bringing the number of professional firefighters operating out of three fire houses to 33.
Two of the new hires, Patrick O’Donahue and Jolene Martinko, took their oaths and will attend the 14-week Utica Fire Academy, complete 18 state certificate courses, and become nationally certified in Firefighter I and Firefighter II, as well as New York State Code Compliance Technicians (Fire Inspectors). The recruits will attend training five days per week in Utica.
Ryan Pritchet and Hudson Lovell were sworn in and will be attending the Career Fire Academy in Westchester, which holds classes Monday through Thursday. The two recruits will receive the same training over 22 weeks.
All four recruits will spend time with LaGrange firefighters when they are not attending class at their respective academies.
The LaGrange Fire District covers a response area of approximately 40 square miles and 16,000 residents, and handles approximately 2,200 calls for service a year, which averages out to about six calls a day. The career firefighters are broken down into four groups of eight staff on each, and there is one training captain.
Board of Commissioners President Marc Komorsky welcomed the new recruits and their families to the meeting and offered to provide support for them if they need it. Chief Champion has met with the new hires multiple times and told Mid-Hudson News he looked forward to having the added staff on board.
The new hires are seen as a proactive approach by the district as several developers seek to build large housing developments in the town, which will require more first responders in the near future.
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