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Southern Ulster Times, Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Marlboro Hose Company has ever seen.”
Bobby Troncillito invited Cosman’s
widow Ruthann and members of the
Cosman family to the podium for a
special remembrance presentation for Cal
Cosman. The company had framed and
monogrammed the three-page news story
that appeared in the Southern Ulster
Times, entitled ‘Cal Cosman’s Final Call,’
that covered his funeral Mass and burial
in Ceder Hill Cemetery in Newburgh.
“I think it’s a fabulous presentation for
the family in remembrance to someone
that was not only dear to me but dear to
the organization, both the district and
the hose company and the neighboring
departments,” Troncillito said. “He was
just so dedicated to the fire service and
‘Second to None,’ as they say.” A standing
ovation followed.
As is generally known, firefighters
also have a great sense of humor, readily
willing to poke fun at themselves and tease
their fellow firefighters. This dinner was
no exception. Jereme DeCarlo received a
wooden plaque with a roll of toilet paper
tacked to it. Ciaglia said, “It’s a gag gift
[because] he complains about the toilet
paper at the station being too harsh for
his sensitive rear. So now he has some
that is extra soft.”
2nd Asst. Chief Lenny Scaturro
received a stuffed boa constrictor.
Ciaglia had the back story on Scaturro’s
ophidiophobia.
“We had a fire call that was for a smell
of smoke in the house that was coming
from a heater for the snake’s cage. Lenny
went in and removed the heater and no
snake was found in the cage,” he said. “It
was one of these ‘Go do what you have
to do and leave’ type of situations.” A
six foot yellow tailed boa constrictor was
eventually located but was not escorted
outside by Scaturro.
Ciaglia said Bobby Troncillito was
“awarded” a replica of a cheese fire
helmet because he “hates flying as
much as Lenny hates snakes. The Fire
Department went to a meeting about our
new Rescue Truck that is being built in
Wisconsin. We flew there but Bobby didn’t
go, as he would have had to fly. So we
bought him a souvenir ‘Cheese Fire Hat,’
while we were there.”
Ciaglia received his very own award
and though tempted to make something
up, confessed to the true story of what
happened one fateful winter’s evening.
“We always put chains on the trucks
before big snow storms. We had a snow
storm the day before and while the roads
were in relatively good shape, the part
we don’t know about is the driveways
we may have to go into; some are nicely
plowed and some don’t get plowed at all.
So its a judgment call by the driver to
drop the chains or not,” he said. “We got
Jereme DeCarlo was awarded a soft roll of
tissue paper.
a call for a car fire and I was the driver.
I decided not to drop the chains and
somewhere along the way on Route 9W a
cross link broke on one of the tire chains
and caused a bit of damage to the truck,
nothing major and, of course for the
gag gift presentation, it gets made into a
bigger deal than it really was, as any well
done gag gift presentation should be. So I
get the ‘should have dropped the chains’
award with some pieces of the carnage.
Mark Ciaglia received the “My tire chain
broke” award.
No lives were lost and the damage was
easily repaired.” Ciaglia ended with a
quote from the late sage Paul Harvey;
“And now you know the rest of the story.”
Chief Erick Masten handed out the
awards for 2017: Dave Scaturro was
honored for serving as the company’s
Vice President from 2014-2017; Mark
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