Fire Chief Gasparre on his Eventful Term

The Village of Tarrytown is holding a special meeting on Friday, April 5 at 8:30 a.m. to confirm elections of new fire chiefs. This marks the end of Eugene Gasparre’s year in the lead. Next up to replace him is returning chief Dom Morabito.

“We’ve had more alarms and incidents this year than this department ever had,” Gasparre said.

He attributes the 579 calls (as of March 20) to everybody having automatic alarms now and CO detectors. Many of the calls they respond to turn out to be from false alarms or dead batteries sounding on detectors. Residents may have even gotten a detector for free from the department. They handed them out during events such as Santa's annual visit to the Warner Library.

If you still need a detector, there are more available:

The Tarrytown Fire Department has a number of Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detectors available free to residents of Tarrytown. These are available on a first come first serve basis while supplies last. If you would like one, please leave a message on the answering machine (914) 631-7066. 

Despite high-volume calls, Gasparre said it’s been a low-cost year as far as damages from fire – that was, until the devastating house fire at 31 Loh Avenue a few weeks ago.

“Thursday I had a low fire-loss. Friday that changed with the recent fire,” Gasparre said on March 23. ”Now I will come in around $410,000 structural fire loss for April 1,2012 - March 31, 2013. The loss before Friday was under $10,000.”

The fire department has also been busy gearing up for the reality of the new Tappan Zee Bridge rebuild to come. Anticipating work accidents, Gasparre said firefighters have been training diligently for special operation rescues and upgrading their heavy equipment.

He foresees the future of the force as firefighters responding to more and more heavy rescues. 

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