The Termites were originally called The Gamblers during the 30's, 40's and part of the 50's and were made up of members of Protection Engine Compnay #2. Members of that team were Rich (Red Flag) Nowak and Frank "Bubbles" Nowakowski. Sometime during the 50's the name was changed to the Termites when members of the other 4 companies in the NHPFD joined the team. Where the name came from is up for discussion. One account has it that someone saw a climber go up a wood ladder and commented that he "ate it up like a termite". If any of the original team members know how the name came about, please email me.
During the late 50's and early 60's the team had both a B truck and a C truck and used to practice on Jasmine Ave next to the town dump. Around 1964 (estimated)
The team folded and the trucks were sold. The B truck went to Islip Terrace who still has the truck and have done a magnificent job refurbishing it!
In 1970 the age for admission to NHPFD dropped from 21 to 18 and the department picked up a lot of young guys. Late in 70 I was approached by Ron Sakowich and asked if I'd be interested in re-starting the racing team. At that time I had been hanging around with the Great Neck Alerts for a couple of years (my friend Augie was the driver). Ron indicated that there were a lot of new young guys (I was an "old" 22!) that were interested in racing and that we could field an old fashion team to start. We enlisted the help of Bubbles because we didn't have a clue as to what we were doing! During the winter of 70-71 we got word that Roslyn Rescue was selling their old B truck and we went to the Termite organization and "persuaded" them to buy the truck for $1500. We had a B truck! It came with a very tired 392 Hemi and boxes of old parts to keep it going. That winter we fixed up the old rig by cutting off hundreds of pounds of lead and used old wood wall paneling to fill the gaps.
And so we started to practice, running efficiency from the back wall of our headquarters out into the slush on the fire house apron. The "new" team actually won a trophy at our first drill in Lindenhurst for Efficiency! The following year we improved the B truck by going 454 Chevy with an automatic and added the Vette 'C' truck in 73 at which time we painted both rigs Nassau blue. Although the Vette was a pretty truck, it didn't handle well (as witnessed first hand in C.I when we creamed the hydrant!) and in 1978(?) we replaced it with a custom built C truck The team started to improve in all areas. In 1981(?) We purchased Garden City Park Mustang's 'B' rig when they disbanded and which we still are using.
1983 proved to be a very good year with the Termites winning County Points for the first time in their history and then winning it again in 85 and 87.
The new C tuck (from Louie) came in 1995 and we sold the 78 rig to Carl Place. With the vastly improved trucks and veteran members, the team was now starting to win tournaments and county points, place consistently in the State Drill, and break State records.
The Termites are proud of their past and look forward to future triumphs.
