Salute to 60 Years of Firefighting
The East Hampton Fire Department celebrated its first active member to reach 60 years of service at its annual inspection dinner at the Maidstone Club late last month. At nearly 91, Joseph DeCristofaro still shows up at fires and dutifully attends all meetings and drills.
“This is the guy that at three o’clock in the morning, when it’s snowing, he comes down the road,” Chief Ken Wessberg said. “That’s the kind of guy he is. You’re not going to find many people like this in the service that we belong to.”
“We’re kind of a unique group of people,” said David H. Brown, a 69-year-old former fire chief who was recognized at the same dinner on April 30 for his half-century of service. Only a handful of members of the East Hampton department, including Mr. Brown’s brother Ken Brown, have been serving actively for 50 years. “Unfortunately, a lot of people join too late in life and they will probably not make 50 years.”
While Mr. Brown joined the department right out of high school, Mr. DeCristofaro joined at 31, about three years after building his house on Buell Lane Extension. A neighbor talked him into it, he said. “I got to meet a lot of fellas here. I was new in town. I didn’t know anybody but a couple of neighbors.” In those early years the firehouse was on Newtown Lane.
Mr. DeCristofaro, a Bridgehampton native, was a veteran twice over when he became a firefighter. His family moved to Westhampton, where he attended high school but left at 17 to enlist in the Navy at the height of World War II. He saw action at Normandy as a gunner on the Liberty, an armed guard ship carrying 10,000 tons of food for the troops. He left the service after three and a half years in 1946 and married Lorraine Loris of East Hampton. They had started a family when, in 1950 during the Korean War, he was called back to duty. He served for a year before getting a reprieve in consideration of his family situation, just before his destroyer shipped out.
At the dinner, Mr. DeCristofaro was presented with commendations from the village, town, county, and Congress. Congressman Lee Zeldin’s office not only presented him with a certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, but also an American flag that had been flown over the capitol building in honor of his military and fire department service. Mr. Zeldin called Mr. DeCristofaro “a true American hero.” In a statement, he said, “It’s always an honor to recognize the patriots of our nation’s greatest generation who successfully defended our freedoms and liberties at such a critical time.”
The chiefs placed a chair by the side of the podium for Mr. DeCristofaro. “I figured they were doing some kind of joke, you know, but they figured there were so many awards they were going to give me, it was going to take a long time, I better sit,” he said. “I sat down at first and then I says, ‘What am I doing here sitting down?’ So I stood up for the rest of it.”
Mr. DeCristofaro said he feels good, and he certainly gets around, but he has no qualms admitting he isn’t able to do everything he used to. “I don’t do a heck of a lot anymore — they won’t let me,” he said with a laugh. While he still drives, he doesn’t get behind the wheel of the fire engines any longer. “I can’t make it down there in time anyhow,” he said of the Cedar Street firehouse. Red lights and traffic cause him to miss the engine most times.
Gone, too, are his days as an interior firefighter. He stays close to the trucks, grabbing tools, helping out wherever he’s needed. The younger generation watches out for him, he said.
“I don’t go in the building,” but make no mistake about it, he said, “if there’s a fire across the street, and it’s burning, I’m going in that house if there’s somebody in there. If they want to throw me out of the department, they can.”
Mr. DeCristofaro retired as East Hampton Town’s chief building inspector in 1989, and worked a part-time job as a housing inspector for another decade before retiring fully. He is also a past commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in East Hampton, and was its quartermaster for 34 years.
He’s pulled back on some things over the years and doesn’t like to go out much since his wife died a decade ago, but he has no plans to stop volunteering in the fire department. “No, not really. As long as I can get around,” he said.
It’s a sentiment shared by Mr. Brown, who said it was always his goal to reach 50 years. “As long as I can get up and walk, I’ll keep going,” he said.
Though he too no longer packs up to go into burning buildings, he’s a mainstay at a fire scene, usually with a pair of coveralls under his turnout gear and a welder’s cap on his head. “Giving back, somebody’s got to do it,” he said, adding that it’s also a lot of fun for him. “You get a little adrenaline rush every time the whistle blows, so it’s pretty cool.”
Mr. Brown shows up at everything, Chief Wessberg said. He’s always been heavily involved with the department’s fleet, particularly the antique steam pumper and a “crash truck” that’s kept at the station at the East Hampton Airport.
Like Mr. DeCristofaro, Mr. Brown is a Navy veteran, a Seabee who served two tours in Vietnam. As a builder third class, he learned invaluable skills that he put to use when he returned home. After a short stint as a town police officer, he went to work for Schwenck’s Dairy as a mechanic and high-pressure steam boiler engineer. He was the last man out of the plant when it closed in the ’80s, and eventually became the town highway superintendent for 16 years.
Though he retired as the town’s clerk of the works and resigned his seat on the East Hampton Village Board a number of years ago, he still keeps busy. A certified welder, he works a construction job and volunteers with the New York Fire Boat, which is docked in Greenport.
“I figure I have a few more years left in me. The 70 is now the new 30,” he joked. After all, he’s got Mr. DeCristofaro’s 60 years to chase.