Henrietta, N.Y. – A Henrietta fire truck pulled into the Bailey Road station just before dinner time Saturday, the final turn for a crew that knows the people they just left have begun their road to recovery.
“This is not going to be a short-time thing, but a very long term,” said Lieutenant Hank Graf of the Henrietta Fire Department who just returned from Long Island.
Lt. Graf and three other firefighters, including Tim Roberts, unpacked their truck that lead them through the devastation.
“It was hard,” said firefighter Tim Roberts. “Especially the more we worked with some of the guys there that really had lost a lot and were still working next to us, they put their own issues aside.”
Pictures taken by the Henrietta crew captured just some of Sandy's destruction - destruction in which the crew fought fires, cleaned up car accidents and fuel spills, and rescued people from carbon monoxide.
“There were boats in the road, boats on golf courses, cars over turned, they abandoned fire trucks that got stuck in the water,” said Roberts. “The magnitude of everything was just incredible.”
Chief Jim Comstock knows crews down there would do the same for him. He knows that, because they did.
“Back in the ice storm (of 1991) we had companies from all over the state that helped us,” said Comstock, “and this is just a chance to pay them back.”
It was payback that didn't go unnoticed.
“They appreciate the residents up here praying for them down there knowing that they're sending support to them down there,” said Graf. “We drove down West Henrietta to a call with the truck that says Henrietta on it and people were cheering a clapping and that was encouraging.”
Ten fire departments from Monroe County responded to help those along the coast.
