The alarm goes off. You see the lights flashing and hear the siren wailing. Then it comes into full view- a large red fire truck racing to help someone in distress. And on it you see the name in big block letters: “Brentwood Fire Department”. The Department covers an area of 24 square miles in Brentwood, North Bay Shore, Edgewood, and Baywood. It’s bordered by the Long Island Expressway (north), Southern State  Parkway( south), Route 111 (east), and the Sagtikos  Parkway (west). It consists of six Engine Companies, one Ladder  Company, and one Service Company. The Department responds only to fire calls, about 1,600 each year (Brentwood Ambulance handles about 7,000 emergency calls a year).

It all started in 1898,when a group of Brentwood residents came together to protect the community from fire. Though there were not many house fires,

there was a major problem with brush and forest fires that threatened homes. At first, the group only had whatever basic equipment they could find, such as buckets and axes. They had no trucks or formal     organization. But on August 28,1899,they purchased land from Mrs. Elvira S. Studley and incorporated the

Brentwood Fire District. A fire house was built in 1900,and a used fire truck and apparatus were then purchased from Islip. Thus, the Brentwood Fire Hook & Ladder Company no.1 was created. At that time, the Fire District was one mile in each direction from the Fire House. But they did fight fires outside this area. In these early years, reporting a fire could only be done by striking a metal ring on a pole outside the Fire House (there were very few telephones in Brentwood). Over the years, thanks to successful fundraising, the Department was able to grow and purchase better equipment. It was reorganized several times and became the Brentwood Fire Department in 1932.

The Fire District was enlarged in 1938,while the village’s first fire hydrants were installed a year earlier. Since then, the Department has continued to provide invaluable service to the Brentwood community. Among the many disasters it has handled: a 1904 fire that destroyed the railroad station, a major brush fire that destroyed hundreds of acres between Broadway and Islip Avenue in February 1963;a huge woodland fire in July of that year;  a gasoline tanker accident at Wicks Road and the LIE and a major train wreck west of the Sagtikos Parkway in the 1970s;and the tanker accident that melted the Sagtikos Parkway bridge on the LIE in October 1994.

Tragedy struck the Department on May 4,1952. Three members-Charles Elliott, Martin Ames, and Andrew Wittman, Jr.-were trapped in their truck during a raging woods fire near Pilgrim State Hospital Ames and Elliott were killed, while Wittman survived,although he was badly burned. The truck was destroyed. The monument in front of the firehouse on Fourth Street is dedicated to these three heroes.

N. Ziino, Local History Room Newsletter, May 2007