Last Saturday, the Marlborough Police and Fire Departments, Mobile Life Support Services, the town Highway Department, Dig Safe New York, and the NY Department of Environmental Protection, the Department of Environmental Conservation held their annual Community Day at the town park.

Marlboro Fire Department Chief Erick Masten said, “I think we covered all of the emergency aspects. It turns out that the one bigger event turns out nice.”

The Milton Fire Department brought a demonstration trailer owned by the Volunteer Fireman’s Association. In a simulation fire, Kevin Darcy showed kids how to stay low to the ground and find their way out to safety.

Kevin Maguire, of the Ulster County Department of Emergency Services, brought two drones and said how they are used during a fire, “is pretty much limited to your imagination.” They can give the incident commander an overview of the size and scope a brush fire his company is fighting. It is also employed in search operations for a missing person using thermal imaging technology during a fire event. The cameras on the drones have a 30x zoom ability and can fly up to 400 feet in the air.

Maguire said the drones are used for water rescues, detecting hazardous materials, “and it can be used on your regular basic house fire if the incident commander wants to get a look at the situation he’s dealing with from up above; we can certainly provide that for him.”

Maguire said his division will provide their services when law enforcement or a fire chief requests a drone.

A Eurocopter EC145 was on the upper field of the park that allowed kids to see up close the inside of a very sophisticated emergency vehicle. It is a twin-engine light utility helicopter that was developed and manufactured by Eurocopter, which was re-branded as Airbus Helicopters in 2014.

Wallkill-based Todd Heiberg, of Air Methods for Life Net NY, said they use the helicopter for EMS, “but it can do just about anything. We can take one patient with us. Other than that anything else would be extra crew for us or a family member.”

Marlborough Police Chief Gerald Cocozza said having all of the emergency services come together, “just made sense. We were doing it separately and we decided one year it would be smarter to do it all together on one day and draw the two crowds together. They were doing theirs for free and we wanted to have ours for free.”

Cocozza said, “we brought a police car, we have a gun display, tactical helmets and shields for people to see and touch, we’ve got T-shirts and we’re doing a free raffle for a mini iPad, hamburgers and hot dogs were provided by the Marlboro Fire Department and ice cream, sundaes and cotton candy. It’s a good time.”

Cocozza said new this year was the Fun Slide, provided by Shamrock Shows and Amusements, of Milton.

“We called them and they were more than happy to bring the slide,” he said.