Service, Sandwiches and Smiles: How Scarsdale's Firefighters Sheltered Evacuees from Tropical Storm Irene

While Scarsdale's volunteer firefighters usually extinguish blazing fires, last weekend they abandoned their trucks and hoses to shelter local families from Tropical Storm Irene. 

After close to 200 evacuees filled the Town of Mamaroneck's Emergency Shelter on Post Road, the American Red Cross (ARC) was unable to meet Department of Public Works Superintendent Benny Salanitro's request for the ARC to provide food water or personnel relief to Scarsdale's own Emergency Shelter at Quaker Ridge Elementary School. 

Salanitro, who called the Red Cross for assistance last Saturday at 2 p.m. as Captain Gerald McIlvain of the Scarsdale Fire Department and an assortment of career and volunteer firefighters arranged 50 cots in the elementary school gym, said he received periodic phone calls from the ARC throughout the evening stating that a caterer and ARC personnel had been sent to the premises but were experiencing delays.

A few firefighters remained at Quaker Ridge Elementary School to welcome evacuees while waiting for additional assistance. Around 9:30 p.m., however, Salanitro received a phone call from Scarsdale Emergency Operations telling him that the ARC would not be arriving as planned. 

"When we finally found out that the ARC weren't coming to us with any supplies with regards to food, water or personnel relief, it was because they had to divert their resources to the Town of Mamaroneck's emergency shelter because of their higher demand," Salanitro said. "Unfortunately, they could not fulfill our request. Simply put, we were in a state of flux at that time as to whether we were going to keep the shelter open or not."

Scarsdale's volunteer firefighters, whose only duty had been to open the shelter, ensured that the shelter's doors stayed open for the 15 individuals — a group of eight Scarsdale residents and seven Eastchester residents, including elementary and middle-school children, parents, a newborn infant and an elderly woman dependent upon an oxygen machine requiring electricity from the shelter's generator — until the storm subsided. 

"Our volunteer firefighters set up the cots in the shelter and staffed it from Saturday at 6 p.m. until Sunday at 1 p.m. when the last evacuees left," Lieutenant Thomas M. Cain of the Scarsdale Fire Department said. "This meant that several volunteers slept at the shelter, leaving their homes and families vulnerable to the storm." 

But while the shelter's doors were open, its pantry was empty and most stores and restaurants were closed. Volunteer firefighter Larry Price, 52, braved the slick streets and pouring rain and hopped into his car to drive home a quarter of a mile and make a tray of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after a girl from Eastchester arrived at the shelter around 9 p.m. complaining of hunger.

Price's peanut butter and jelly, along with water bottles originally intended for first responders and a tray of sandwiches ordered before the storm and donated by the Scarsdale Police Benevolence Association (PBA), sustained the evacuees until morning, when several volunteers journeyed to an open establishment, Sammy's Bagels, to purchase breakfast for the crowd using their own funds. 

Although the volunteer firefighters were offering makeshift emergency shelter, they still maintained a sense of hospitality...and humor. 

"We ran out of the shelter like valets," joked Lou Mancini, 47, a 27-year veteran of Scarsdale's volunteer fire department who helped a three-child family from Murdoch Woods carry their belongings from into the shelter. "It was white glove service. If we could've parked the car for them, we would have." 

Mancini, along with Quaker Ridge custodians Hynen and Ruben, Price and an assortment of volunteer firefighters, handled any requests the shelter inhabitants had for the evening, including setting up a generator-powered refrigerator for the baby's milk and brewing coffee sent by Scarsdale Emergency Medical Services (EMS). They even provided entertainment for their guests — a spectacular outdoor nature show. 

"It was a beautiful night, so we set up cots under an overhanging outside and watched the storm from a bench area," Mancini said. "The only thing we were missing [from the evening] were the chocolates on the pillows at night." 

While evacuees were anxious about the storm, they were comforted by the fact that they were sheltered by fellow neighbors, according to Mancini. 

"They were agitated and there was a certain amount of uncertainty, but we let them know thatwe're their neighbors. Once they heard that we're fellow Scarsdale residents, we're going to be at the shelter all night and we have the supplies — a generator, water, etc. — everyone settled in and made the best of a situation that could have been terrible," Mancini said. 

The firefighters, who had never run a shelter before, "did what they had to do," according to Mancini. 

Salanitro, however, stated that the volunteers performed a "yeoman’s job."

"Without them stepping up to the plate, there would have been no shelter – period," Salanitro said.