Few things get Jill Relyea’s blood pumping faster than a call into the District 6 firehouse in Rotterdam.
“Oh, the adrenaline, yeah, the adrenaline kicks in, it most certainly does,” Relyea said as she quickly put her safety gear on. “Then we just listen to the radio and prepare to fight whatever we have to fight.”
For nearly 18 years, Relyea has been keeping her community safe as a member of the South Schenectady Fire Department’s volunteer squad.
“We don’t know what we’re going into, especially with the COVID,” she said earlier this month. “We never know what to expect. It could be different every call.”
What You Need To Know
- In 2021, volunteer South Schenectady firefighter Jill Relyea responded to all 222 of the station’s calls for service
- Department leaders believe it is an unprecedented accomplishment in the long history of the volunteer agency based in Rotterdam
- Relyea has been with the department for nearly 18 years after she followed her husband and his family members into the service
In 2021, the department received 222 calls for service. Relyea responded to every single one.
“I think it’s a wonderful accomplishment,” Relyea said. “I am 66 years old. I’m not the youngest firefighter there.”
“You’re not going to make every call,” said Captain Matt Mickle, a longtime member of the department. “This is an accomplishment that I’ve never seen. I’ve been in the fire service for over 30 years now, and I’ve never seen anybody respond to 100 percent of the calls.”
Department President Steve Connell and Assistant Chief Jason Pollard said on top of her firefighting duties, Relyea is the driving force behind all of the social and community events put on by the firehouse.
“Anything that comes up, I’m like, ‘hey Jill, what do you think about this?’ ” Pollard said. “She’s the first person I’m going to go to. She’s always there to help us out.”
“We set up Toys for Toys, kids’ Christmas parties, things in the community that come up,” Connell said. “She’s right there. She’s always checking in on things, checking on the people and she’s always checking in on us here, too.”
Relyea was 54 years old when she decided to join her husband, Howard, in the fire service. Since then, she said the members of the department have become her extended family.
“Oh boy, we go way back; a lot of us go way back,” Relyea said while other members of the department gathered around her.
“We go back to the 1950s if you think about it, with our grandparents,” Connell responded.
With a responsibility to protect her friends and neighbors in the community and back up her brothers and sisters in the department, Relyea said she never once considered taking a night off.
“The best part of it is the public,” Relyea said. “Knowing we’ve helped them, we’ve had some wonderful people tell us what a good job we did, that means a lot.”