PITTSFORD — The Pittsford Fire Department recently received a donation of canned emergency drinking water from leading brewer, Anheuser-Busch, to help provide critical hydration to its responders during this year’s wildfire season.
On July 5, Farrell Distributing, a local Anheuser-Busch wholesaler partner, dropped off two pallets of water to PFD to help support its wildfire response needs. Maintaining firefighters’ hydration during long incidents or disasters such as wildfires is a major safety concern for many departments.
The Pittsford Fire Department has proudly served the citizens of Pittsford and Florence with pride, professionalism, and dedication since 1948.
The 44 members of the PFD are led into action by Chief Bill Hemple, who has been serving as chief since 2017. They work from two stations, utilizing eight different apparatus, including two engines, one ladder truck, one tanker, one medium duty rescue, one wildland/brush truck, and one off-road utility vehicle.
PFD has an initial response area of approximately 45 square miles protecting roughly 3000 residents of Pittsford and Florence. PFD is also part of the Rutland County Fire Mutual Aid Association, in which they provide mutual aid response, potentially increasing their secondary response area to nearly 300 square miles with a population of almost 56,000.
“The water will be used for hydration which is needed for the fire service. Some of the water will also be distributed to other fire departments,” said Chief Hemple.
Anheuser-Busch donated the water through a partnership with the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC). Anheuser-Busch has a longstanding tradition of providing emergency drinking water and supplies for disaster relief efforts. Each year, the company periodically pauses beer production to apply its production and logistics expertise to can clean, safe drinking water that is ready to distribute when disaster strikes.
Since 1988, the brewer has donated more than 90 million cans of emergency drinking water to communities impacted by natural disasters and other crises.
Building on this commitment, the brewer teamed up with the NVFC – the leading nonprofit membership association representing the interests of the volunteer fire, emergency medical, and rescue services – in 2019 to provide emergency drinking water to help firefighters stay hydrated and healthy when responding to wildfires and large incidents. To date, the program has donated nearly 4.9 million cans of water to volunteer firefighters across the country.
Learn more about the program at www.nvfc.org/water.
