New Paltz, NY – Firefighters at New Paltz  get calls for mutual aid all the time.

But from Israel?

Two Israeli officials, members of the Israeli Emergency Volunteers Project, were in town last month asking for just that. And, in true firefighter fashion, five members of the New Paltz Fire Department have answered the call.

The EVP, as it’s called, is recruiting throughout the country, asking for volunteers to lend a hand with what director Adi Zahavi matter-of-factly describes as a tense situation in his homeland that’s only going to get worse.

“We expect renewed attacks towards the middle of 2010,” he said.

“It’s not a question of ‘if’ war happens, only when,” EVP spokesman Gil Kleinman said.

Fire is fire, but, as the volunteers will find, nothing in their experience will prepare them for what they’ll be called on to do in Israel.

Read more at Times Herald Record