[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 133 (Wednesday, September 29, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1836-E1837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TRIBUTE TO THE POINT BREEZE FIRE DEPARTMENT

                                  _____
                                 

                         HON. ANTHONY D. WEINER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 29, 2010

  Mr. WEINER. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the Point Breeze Fire 
Department in honor of its centennial anniversary. The Point Breeze 
Fire Department has provided a hundred years of service to the 
beachside communities of Breezy Point, Roxbury, and Rockaway Point, 
which are located on the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens, New York, the 
most populous barrier island in the country.
  The Point Breeze Fire Department was established in 1910 and is one 
of the ten remaining volunteer fire departments in the city of New 
York. The original department had an operating charter for fifteen 
years, and in 1976 the Point Breeze Volunteer Fire Department was 
officially incorporated and recognized as a fire department by Mayor 
Abraham Beam.
  The first fire house was located on Hillcrest Walk near Point Breeze 
Avenue, facing the bay. It was a wooden structure built above the sand 
that contained two hose reels and a large, mounted CO2 
extinguisher, all of which had to be pulled manually by the members to 
a scene of a fire. In 1938 another firehouse was built at 32 Point 
Breeze Avenue. It would remain the department's headquarters until 
1975. The current home of the Point Breeze Volunteer Fire Department, 
constructed that same year is a modern facility that facilitates the 
needs of an effective fire department.
  The neighborhoods protected by the Point Breeze Fire Department are 
geographically challenging. The Breezy Point Cooperative is surrounded 
on two sides by the Atlantic Ocean and on one side by Jamaica Bay. The 
residential homes are mostly located in the sand and require four wheel 
drive vehicles to reach them.
  The Point Breeze Fire Department has assisted in several marine 
rescue operations, including the rescue of stranded fisherman and over 
300 passengers from a ship named The Golden Venture in 1993. The 
department bravely responded to the World Trade Center attacks on 
September 11, 2001 and continued to assist the FDNY and NYPD in its 
rescue efforts at Ground Zero. Only a few months later the department 
was one of the first companies at the scene of the crash of American 
Airlines Flight 587 in Belle Harbor.
  Today Chief Martin J. Ingram and seventy-five members of the 
department are responsible for protecting and serving the Breezy Point 
community. The Point Breeze Fire Department responds to over 125 calls 
a year which are a emergencies such as brush, car, and structure fires; 
car accidents; floods; storm-related accidents; downed power lines; 
boats in distress; and blackouts.
  Point Breeze Fire Department and all of its members have faithfully 
served the many communities of the Rockaway peninsula. They have 
provided necessary services to an isolated part of New York City that 
rarely receives the attention it deserves. I am pleased to congratulate 
the department on the occasion of its centennial anniversary.

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