GLENS FALLS — What started as a summer job with the Fire Department grew into a four-decade career filled with solving problems.
Assistant Chief Jack Mulcahy said people call the police if they have a legal question, but call firefighters for everything else — water in the basement, sewer backup and even the famous cat stuck in a tree. Firefighters will try to help.
“The Fire Department will come over and at least point you in the right direction,” he said.
Mulcahy on Friday wrapped a four-decade career as a firefighter — a career he said he fell into by “dumb luck.”
He was originally going to fly helicopters for the New York State Police after he got out of the Army. However, in the midst of the Vietnam War, he saw that helicopter pilots often did not last too long.
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Instead, he entered the Navy. After he was discharged, he intended to take the exam to be a State Police trooper. He got a summer job working for the Fire Department. Back in the day, the city hired many youths for temporary employment.
Mulcahy said he was very familiar with the firefighters because he lived three doors down from the old Broad Street station.
The youths got real experience.
“We rode the firetrucks. We didn’t go inside the fire. We did everything outside. We wore the gear, which was nothing but a rubber coat and a metal hat,” he said.
He thought to himself that firefighting was not a bad job.
“It’s exciting. You go to work and everything is different. You’re always trying to solve a problem,” he said.
“I never believed it would be 41 years,” he added.
And if it were up to him, he would have gone a little longer. He has three children in college, including a daughter finishing her last year of law school.
However, the state says that he must retire. He turned 65 on Dec. 19 and is required to retire within 30 days.
Mulcahy reflected on how the job has changed. People go through the academy now to become firefighters, but a lot of the learning comes by doing, according to Mulcahy.
They did not have the classes or books or magazines to study firefighting.
“Everything was on-the-job training,” he said.
Back in the day, the first crew on the scene went right to work.
“You didn’t have an air pack. Air packs were for sissies,” he said.
“You learned how to breathe smoke. You learned how to take heat. You would hug the floor because that’s where the good air was and where you can see,” he said.
“If your ears started burning, you were too deep inside the fire,” he said.
It was mostly about fighting fires back then. Now, the department has a marine division for boat rescue and a hazardous materials division. It does confined space rescues and offers emergency medical services.
Mulcahy said the ambulance service is good because it gives the firefighters a chance to see the buildings, so they knew how they are laid out and where the exits are.
“Before, you didn’t get into people’s homes unless they had a problem,” he said.
Another big change is smoke detectors, which have been life-saving.
“Now, when you burn your toast or the stove catches fire, it warns you so you put it out,” he said.
His first major fire was a fatality at what was then Macero’s Restaurant at 160 Broad St. He can recall riding on the back step of the fire engine and seeing the glow in the sky, with then-Assistant Chief Billy Hall telling him: “You better pull your boots up, kid.”
There was a man living in a downstairs hatch behind the bar. He was not able to escape.
Another memorable time was the fire at the Frazier Paint building at the corner of Park and Elm streets. Firefighters had to rescue people off the second floor.
“This was all filled with wallpaper, paint. Aerosol cans were blowing up and shooting across the room,” he said.
Mulcahy said he had forgotten some of these fires before going through a book of newspaper clippings and photos.
Mulcahy choked up when he mentioned a fire at a house on Orville Street that killed a 78-year-old woman and the two grandchildren she was babysitting.
The power was out and a propane heater was being used, he said. The grandmother heard a clicking noise. She finally went to find out the source of the noise and found the front of the house fully engulfed.
Mulcahy said firefighters believe the 4-year-old was playing with the igniter.
“He probably oversaturated the area with fuel and then it took off,” he said. “The front porch had collapsed before the first units had even got there.”
There have been lighter moments, such as the time there was a bear fire. Mulcahy said it was a display made out of big rolls of hay that was set up near Burger King. Somebody probably walked by and threw a cigarette at it, sparking the blaze.
He couldn’t resist calling into dispatch: “Engine 1 is one scene. Confirmed bear fire.”
He has had calls for the proverbial cat suck in a tree. He told the homeowner to leave the cat alone and put a bowl of milk at the bottom in the hopes to entice it to come down.
The homeowner said it couldn’t be done because the dog chained to the tree will drink the milk.
“Why do you think the cat won’t come down?” he responded.
He has also had a request from a man who wanted a ladder truck to get a bird out of a tree.
“Don’t birds belong in trees?” Mulcahy said. “He said, ‘No, no. This one escaped.’”
“‘My girlfriend told me not to open the sliding glass doors because the bird might get out,’” he said.
Firefighters are also able to assist each other with their own problems. They work 24-hour shifts, so Mulcahy said he and his firefighters become like a family — eating, sleeping, watching television and training together.
That family has gotten smaller over the years. There used to be 11-man crews, although one person is usually on a sick day or day off, which brought it down to 10. The cost of living has gone up and businesses and government are trying to manage expenses.
“It’s just the way of the world,” he said.
Now, they have eight-person crews, including two in reserve to run the ambulance, which most of the time is okay. However, when there are multiple incidents going on at the same time, he said he has to juggle priorities.
“I have to decide with my resources what can I do,” he said.
Change is good, but it is not always for the better. He said it is sad to see the incidents of suicide among young people and the problem of drug overdoses.
“We had a guy — he’s sitting on the toilet in Stewart’s on the corner of Warren and McDonald (streets) with his pants down. He’s got his drugs here, his needle here and he’s out,” he said.
They broke down the door and revived him.
Firefighters see people in their most vulnerable state and save lives, but it is just part of their day, he said.
“I did have a guy come up to me one time and said, ‘You saved my life.’
“I did?,” he recalled telling the man. “He got stabbed or something. I must have been there. He remembered me.”
Mulcahy has been an assistant chief for 10 years. Before that, he was a lieutenant for 15 years.
Firefighter Doug Holl, who works under Mulcahy, described Mulcahy as very “down to earth, doing his job, always willing to help.”
Mulcahy said Friday was Holl’s last day as a firefighter at the Ridge Street station, as he is being promoted to lieutenant and will be in charge of the Broad Street station.
Mulcahy hopes to keep busy in retirement by restoring a 1970 Chevy Nova SS that he bought while he was in high school in 1971. Also, he and his wife, Debra, a retired Glens Falls math teacher, have been trying to hike all the mountains with fire towers.
He will also spend time with his three children, Bryan, Chris and Kate; and grandson, Jace.
Mulcahy said he would continue to call the fire station from time to time to get advice from his extended family. There are amazingly talented people at the station who excel at construction, plumbing, boating and computers, he said.
Mulcahy said he enjoyed talking to the chief in particular.
“He’s an amazing individual. He’s got a mind like a steel trap. He doesn’t forget anything. A lot of times, he’s good to bounce ideas off of,” he said.
Per tradition, after his shift concluded at 8 a.m. Saturday, Mulcahy was given a final ride home, on a firetruck, from the Ridge Street station to his home.
Fire Chief James Schrammel said Mulcahy is going to be tough to replace.
“You lose something that has 40 years experience, you’re not replacing that with someone off the street,” he said. “You can teach someone how to be a firefighter. One thing you can’t teach is knowledge and experience.”