Dave Torrence vividly remembers his first fire call in 1974 with the Highland Hose Volunteer Fire Company — it was the night he joined the Tarentum department.
“I got in bed and the whistle blew,” said Torrence, 72, a lifelong borough resident. “I just thought, ‘Here we go.’”
Fellow Highland Hose firefighter Sam Huey remembers his first response, too.
“There was a mom-and-pop grocery store on the corner and a fire started in the basement,” said Huey, 68, who grew up in Tarentum and now lives in Harrison.
“The lady who ran it and her nephew both died. It was awful. No sooner did we get that fire out than we got a call that Citizens Hose was on fire. It was a long night.”
Torrence worked for 42 years as a press operator at the Valley News Dispatch/USA Today before retiring, and Huey is a retired federal officer of the U.S. Treasury Department.