 This is Michelle Getzinger here with the Pittsburgh Your City show, and I'm here at Aspenwall, and we're meeting with the fire department today. This is Gene Morcico, and he's gonna tell us a little bit about your volunteer fire department program. Tell us first how you got started. Okay, Michelle, thanks. I got started when I was 18. I joined the fire department. Back then, you had to be 18 to join, and I lived behind the fire department, so whenever there was a call, the whistle would blow. I'd cut through the alley to the fire station and chase the fire trucks. Now, usually, by the time we got a couple blocks and we're out of breath, they were coming back, so we never knew where they went. But since that day, when I was young, it always made me ambitious and wanted to join the fire department to help out. And you've been chasing fire trucks ever since. Not anymore. Not anymore, I can drive them now. So Gene, tell us about what we're gonna do today. Okay, so tonight is our training night, it's Tuesday night. We came down to our public works garage where the Aspenwall Marine is in the riverfront, which is a beautiful view. We're gonna practice hitting the fire hydrant, and then we're gonna be taking some pre-connected lines off and stretching them out. The fire hydrant is one of the most important jobs there is in the fire service because that person's in charge of getting the water to the pumper for the guys that are inside. And usually, we stick the new guy or the junior member on there, so it's a lot of responsibility, so we need to make sure that they know what they're doing. Yeah. Tell us what it's like to be a fireman. Okay, well being a volunteer is pretty fun, pretty exciting. I'd say 90% of the time we go on calls, you come back, you might be gone for a half hour or less. It's funny, you have a good time. You know, you meet some great people, interesting people. There are the 10% of the times that the calls are very serious and they hit home whether it involves children or it could be a train versus car accident or a major accident on the highway. About three years ago, on a Sunday down here at the marina, we had a gentleman leaving the marina and there was a train in motion going through the crossing. And as he was coming up, there was actually workers there right at the crossing laying some cable and they saw the guy coming and they were screaming at the guy to stop because the train was going through. He didn't stop, he hit the train. When he bounced off the train, he had three of the workers. So when we got here, we had three men down that were workers and the gentleman in the car was trapped. So it usually takes about a mile to stop a train so by the time the train got stopped we had to climb over the train to get our equipment on the other side of the tracks to be able to extricate the gentleman. Wow. Tell us a little bit about what you guys need here because you guys are literally our heroes that answer calls in the middle of the night. So what can we do to help your fire department? Okay, well, in Aspaw and all volunteer fire companies, we're always looking for members. In Aspaw, we take them at 14 years old. We take junior members, male or female. We take their parents too, the adults. It's a commitment, but it's worthwhile. We also have a program for associate members for somebody that wants to join the fire department but they don't want to put up fires. Yeah, they might be afraid, but they want to help out. We also have a flea market. They could help with any fundraising events, whether it be the flea market or a cash bash or a mail drive. Wow, you guys got a lot of opportunities for lay people to come in and out. And one of our associate members, we're very fortunate, is an accountant and a great tax guy. Our taxes, our books are on point every year, so it's great to have him aboard. That's what a great opportunity to have to be able to help you like that. In closing, we are gonna put all of the information for you for people to contact you to volunteer. Is there anything else that you wanna say to the community? We would love to have you as members. You know, it's a community. Aspaw is a community, it's a tight-knit community. We're always looking for members to help. You can come by the fire hall any Tuesday. We're there. Yep, come on and check it out. Things that we won't.