Lillian Moser was elected in December as the first female president in the 129-year history of the Cold Spring Fire Co.
How did you become a volunteer firefighter?
I graduated from college in 1994 and moved back to Cold Spring to care for my mother. We were living at 133 Main St., the home of my great-grandfather, Edward Joseph Engelbride, who had been the village tobacconist. The house was directly across from the firehouse. One day in 1996, I was sitting on the front porch, bored, when the fire truck pulled out. It was an old Ford engine that sounded like a fire truck should sound. I thought it was telling me to be a firefighter. That’s when I joined. Next year will be my 30th.
How many women were in the fire company at that time?
I was the third woman to join the company. The first was Barbara “Charlie” Murphy. The second was Nicole Miozzi, who was a friend. She told me it was going to be difficult being a woman in a male-dominated field. But most men have been supportive, especially when they saw that women could contribute just like them.
What’s it like to fight a fire?
I promised my mother and my best friends that I would not run into burning buildings, so I’m exclusively an exterior firefighter. Our fire trucks hold as much as 2,500 gallons of water. When that water runs out, you need to “hit” a hydrant. I love to do that; it is so cool. It kind of relates to giving someone a blood transfusion. One of the most memorable fires was at the Grand Union [grocery store] in February 2002. We couldn’t use the hydrant system because the store’s sprinkler system kicked in and killed the water supply. We lost the Grand Union, but we didn’t lose the entire strip. The firewalls did their job. It became Foodtown when it was rebuilt.
What is a misconception people might have about the fire company?
There are a lot of people in the area who don’t understand that when you dial 911, the FDNY is not going to show up. When you have an oil burner malfunction, a gas leak or a fire, and you call the fire department, our members’ pagers go off. Up in North Highlands, the siren is going to sound. And then your next-door neighbor is going to get in his or her car and drive to the firehouse. They’re going to put on their gear, hop on a fire truck and come to your house. Some people, when they understand that, that’s when they join. We’ve had an uptick in membership in the last few years; we have about 30 active members.
What is the biggest challenge for the company?
Outfitting our personnel with the equipment needed to respond to calls. Putnam County has installed a new radio system, so our radios and pagers are going to be obsolete. Pagers cost $450 and radios can cost $8,000. We’re starting a campaign soon to raise $40,000 to pay for that, as well as other gear. We are also concerned about how our call volume may increase due to the Hudson Highlands Fjord Trail. We may need funding to deal with that extra work.
