HUDSON – Firefighting came to life for dozens of future firefighters when students enrolled in the Cold Spring Junior Firefighter Academy traveled to Hudson in Columbia County to visit the FASNY Firefighter Museum.
The teenagers explored the collection of firefighting equipment, apparatus, artwork, artifacts and interactive exhibits from ornate hand-drawn hose carts of the eighteenth century to brawny 1,000-gallon diesel-powered tankers of the 1970’s era.
The trip highlighted the summer academy in Putnam County that has been ongoing for the past 24 years.
The academy was founded by Dan Valentine, a longtime member of the Cold Spring Fire Co.
Valentine said the camp was not a completely original idea. It was modeled after a program he attended in high school as a Putnam County sheriff’s cadet; another operated by the Greenburgh Police Department and fire-prevention training he led when he was a junior at Haldane High School and already a volunteer firefighter with Cold Spring.
The academy wasn’t designed to recruit firefighters and other first responders, yet many recruits have become first responders.
Jeff Phillips, who attended the academy 20 years ago, was its first graduate to reach the rank of chief.
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