WNYT, Catskill, N.Y. After traveling down on Saturday for three days of arduous labor, seven members of the Catskill Fire Department returned Monday night.

They traveled down to use their Engine 3-13 to combat the Jennings Creek Fire in Orange County.

Second Lieutenant Angelina Colon said, “We saw smoke rolling over the mountain pretty good down there.” We were on structural protection because, I suppose, it crossed the fire line. We traveled to Edgemere. We were near a house. We were defending two houses when we noticed the smoke and fire growing closer and closer.

“On Saturday night, the fire was creeping down close to us, so we were behind houses, wetting down everything behind the houses and the houses at points,” Lieutenant Addison Allen recalled. We covered hot places on Sunday.

The labor was physically taxing.

Firefighter Ben Swart stated that it was simply the terrain. The most important thing was to navigate and be safe because it was really steep where we were behind the houses. Fortunately, none of us were hurt, and we are really delighted about that.

“We had two hoses off our main truck where if the fire got any closer we were to just put it out entirely,” firefighter Nicholas Teslenko explained. “A lot of it was just making sure the fire wouldn’t get past the fire line they had set up, so they set up some hose to stop the fire from advancing.”

At one point, a loud siren and fire call broke up our interview. They returned the previous evening, but there was no rest for the tired. These volunteers left for a different call.

Orange County was quite appreciative of the youthful crew from Catskill.

According to Lt. Colon, “hundreds and hundreds of the town’s residents came out and supported us, gave us food every morning, lunch, and dinner, and made sure we were all set throughout the day.” It was breathtakingly gorgeous.