In honor of Labor Day, we return to the subject of Long Island volunteer firefighters. Last episode, Tom Rinelli and Connie brought up the infamous 1974 fire at Dowling College in Oakdale. By a nice piece of coincidence and as a gift from the podcasting gods, Chris recalled a 2009 oral history he had conducted with local firefighter Joe Mandanici, who had been present at that fire.

Here, with Joe’s permission, is an edited version of that conversation. Joe, then a rookie at the Oakdale firehouse (in the West Sayville Fire Department), got the call in the pre-dawn hours of a cold cold March morning. As only a volunteer firefigher can know, it was the start of a long day.