The Hetény Firefighters' Association

We have already seen the processing of the fires in Hetény on Kincskeresők, when two of our former students told the story of the fires of 1856 and 1882. As a brief reminder: the first fire had 9 fatalities, 163 houses burned down, and the material damage was 120,000 HUF. There were no human casualties in the second fire, but the number of houses burned down was 175. By then, the church and the school were also saved. Emperor Franz Joseph also provided significant assistance in the first fire, donating 8,000 gold forints from his private treasury to help the victims. In the second fire, it was Baron Dittfurth Mór of Komárom who showed his generosity. He donated several cartloads of reeds to the victims. The fire is described in Árpád Feszty's book The Damaged. He also immortalized it in his painting. ; Learning from the fires, in 1886 the village of Hetény adopted a fire regulations, which stated that a firefighting organization would be organized voluntarily in the village. Its commander was Benő Szabó, and its deputy commander was István Csintalan. Among the signatories of the regulations are the names of the Reformed pastor Lajos Kovács and the clerk Károly Szelle, who were related to the school's namesake - Lajos Tarczy. ; The official announcement of the establishment can be found in the Budapest National Firefighters Museum, on page 248 of the yearbook edited by János Vass. Árpád Feszty's work Kárvallotkat is also exhibited here, the subtitle of which unfortunately only states that it is a tragedy of a highland village. ; During our data collection in the Komárom archives, we found some protocols that talk about the firefighting association. We mention some interesting facts: The first minutes were drawn up on September 19, 1911 at an extraordinary meeting of the representative body. Present were: Lajos Csintalan - judge, president, András Kocsis, János Szalai, Lajos Gál, János Gál, István Sárai, Mihály Hencz, Lajos Szabó, Gergely Szabó, András Csintalan, Mihály Pákozdi, András Fekete, István Zajos, Balázs Lévai, Lajos Kocsis - representatives, Gyula Kiss - village clerk. ; Before the adoption of resolution 25/1911, decree number 4010/1911 is presented, which obliges the representative body to organize a firefighter's association or possibly a fire department. Decision: Since Hetény has a volunteer fire department with statutes, but no members, it will first try to get members, and if it fails, it will decide to organize a mandatory fire department. There is no suitable person in the village who could be a commander. The village does not replace the syringes because they are in good condition and finds the expense unnecessary. It is interesting that in June 1912 the representative body already obliges the association to repair the syringes, which must be done in the Komárom ship repair shop. ; We also have a picture of the Hetény fire band. Unfortunately, we were unable to find out how active they were and how they played the instruments. We learned that they mainly marched on the main street of the village during parties, inviting the residents to join in the fun. However, we found a resolution from 1926. The representatives of the village, Judge Zsigmond Szalai, Gyula Fóris, János Tanka, Lajos Sárai, István Pákozdi, Benő Tanka, Benő Lucza, József Dékány, István Csintalan János, Lajos Kocsis, András Gál, Gyula Csintalan, and clerk Béla Radlecovics, decided to sell the wind instruments of the volunteer fire brigade band. The fire chief proposed and requested the sale of the instruments, which the representative body rejected because it did not consider the proposal to be correct. The instruments remained, but unfortunately they could not play them, they slowly disappeared. In the 1950s, only one horn was owned, only Ernő Pintér senior could blow it, and if there was a fire, they did not even indicate it with that. ; In 1927, a report was made that the ice pit of the village of Hetény was destroyed in the fire. Gáspár Tóth, an entrepreneur from Szentpéter, is willing to build the village ice rink with a 3 x 3 m wide and 2.5 m deep thatched roof door. For this, he uses the remaining material from the village storehouse. (September 28, 1927) A new fire station is built in 1928. In just 10 years, by 1939, it becomes obsolete, so on June 30, 1939, the representative body decides to transform the fire station and the pálinka distillery. The representatives of the village at that time were the following: István Csintalan, village judge, president, Dezső Kocsis, Lajos Kocsis, Gyula Fóris, István Pákozdi, János Tanító, Dániel Szalai, Lajos Szabó, Benő Lucza, Gergely Német, István Zajos, Dezső Sebők, Lajos Fóris, Sándor Kocsis, András Zajos, Balázs Dékány, Imre Gáspár, clerk. ; After the re-annexation of the Upper Hungary, it was necessary to survey the organizations operating in the re-annexed areas. (HSÚ Komárno, cislo skatule 14, 499/1939 adm.) Based on the data of the Komárno archive, we can say that in Csallóközaranyos the volunteer fire brigade operates with 43 members, with 72 pengő assets, in Nemesócsá with 33 members, without assets, in Tany with 22 members, also without assets, in Megyercs with 26 members, with 200 pengő assets. We found no data on Hetény. Minutes of the meeting of the representative body On June 30, 1939, the village passed resolution 532/1939: the fire brigade in the village farm must be moved to the blacksmith shop, where Géza Horváth currently lives. The lease contract must be terminated for him. The fire brigade must be merged with the distillery, of course providing appropriate conditions. Later, a decree was issued requesting a report on the fire extinguishers and equipment of the villages (HSÚ KN, 2616/1939 adm). Unfortunately, we can only identify this from stories. ; In 1944, a letter from the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office informed the villages that, according to the decree of the Minister of the Interior, all small and large villages that have a motorized sprayer with a capacity of at least 800 percilimeter or more are obliged to set up a fire department paid for at their own expense. District headquarters must be established. (HSÚ KN, cislo skatule 65, 1466/1944 adm.) Komárom and Ógyalla are proposed as centers, among others, which is supported by the fact that in this way professional firefighters will be close to each settlement. ; Firefighters were also assigned to duty during the summer harvests. In the archives of the Komárom archives, we found an official circular from 1944, in which the volunteer fire brigade organizations were called to their attention that the volunteer fire brigade organizations should help during the summer service. A volunteer fire brigade should be assigned to each firefighter. The service was already performed in what is now the Konde store. There was the fire engine there and there was a small room next to it, where there was a bed and a radio. There were always two on duty, day and night. During the harvest, out at the border, there was the water truck, or the fire engine. It was an old type of small truck, with a box, pulled by a tarpaulin truck. It was not a tank truck, but a suction basket truck. ; The volunteer fire brigade, which was formed from the blacksmith shop, was later moved next to the current post office building, and today a store operates in the building. Next to the building, there is still a tall iron structure on which hoses made of hemp were dried. The iron structure has a history. The district headquarters had given this iron structure to the Madarik people for several years, with the idea that it would serve as a dryer for them. After several years, the resourceful people of Hetény acquired a means of transport and brought it from Madarik, with the idea that they would take the structure to be repaired, because it was starting to deteriorate. In the meantime, the foundation for the structure had already been dug out to erect it. This happened. It was only after several years that the Madarik people started looking for where to repair it, and they complained to the district headquarters, where the answer was that the Madarik people could not erect it in 5 years, but the people of Hetény did it in 5 days. ; This fire station worked well. However, an opportunity arose that a new one could be built with voluntary work, with the financial costs covered by the state. The people of Hetény seized the opportunity and started building a new station. The planned building had a hall, a bathroom, a toilet. An office, a small garage, a CO storage room, a garage with a repair pit for 2 larger cars. The building was quickly built, which was later expanded, the village library was added here, and several more offices. ; Meanwhile, the volunteers diligently practiced at the Delipart. They diligently prepared for the firefighting competition held every spring, of which they successfully participated in the district and district rounds. The membership met at this time and prepared for the competitions: they had to complete an obstacle course, which included rolling a hose, getting over a wide board, jumping over a window sill, “shooting at a target” with a water jet, i.e. a fire attack. This attack always began on the orders of the deputy commander. The hoses were of different sizes: size C1, C2. The exercise was preceded by a theoretical competition and completing a test. The people of Hetény were district champions several times, they had many medals and certificates from this period. ; In the district leadership of the 1970s, Viliam Bóló was the district president, Árpás Skrivanek was the district director and Géza Mellen was the district secretary, to whom the volunteer firefighters belonged. Mayor Árpád Hetényen was a member and president from 1957 and commander from 1980. Before him, Endre Nagy and then Juraj Mokos (born 1920) performed this task. Uncle Árpi transferred to the shipyard in 1988 as a professional firefighter. They remember the competitions fondly. Uncle Gyuri Mokos said that the first prize of one of the district competitions was hoses, which the people of Hetény already had. What was not there, however, was the ceremonial uniform, so the competitors decided to let themselves be beaten, lose, just so that the uniforms would be theirs. However, there was also a competition where the pump engine, which had been repaired beforehand, did not want to start at all. ; Firefighters were held in high esteem. Representatives of the organizations were invited to the ceremonies, who came together with the district party leadership. In the 1950s, identity cards were also ceremonially handed out. Either the leaders from the district came to the school or the village office and handed them over to the young people who had reached the age of 15. The volunteers went to the school to conduct training three times a year. Children were also divided into small groups, and firefighting exercises were held in the form of circles, the same ones that the adults also performed. This is how they recruited children, who could also participate in competitions from the age of 14. ; The volunteer firefighters did not own much. At the beginning of their formation, farmers with carts were assigned to serve. Later, when they had a building, they were given hoses made of hemp. They owned a box engine on 4 wheels, picks, helmets, and later work clothes. The disadvantage of the box engine was that it was not really good for firefighting, as it had low pressure, and it definitely had to be close to water, as it did not have a tank. ; The volunteer firefighters had several opportunities to put out fires in practice. A straw pile caught fire in Kúcsor (Kútsor). You should know that in such a case, the pile is unsalvageable. The area must be protected so that the fire does not spread further. They called the volunteers, threw the bells aside, quickly went out to the Szentpéter border, plowed around the pile that had been struck by lightning, and tried to put out the fire with shovels and throwing dirt on it. They waited for the Gyalla firefighters to arrive. ; There was a fire on Fő Street in 1952/53. An old man fell asleep with a cigarette in the Zoli Fortuna house. The straw caught fire, and the district fire department had to be called in. Everyone was saved. András and Ilonka Pintér lived on Új Street. Their house caught fire at night. Uncle Gyuri was already in bed before midnight when they came and shouted: “Uncle Gyuri, you’re welcome!” The house caught fire from under the stairs, because the owner of the house had set it on fire out of jealousy and under the influence of alcohol. They signaled with a siren that there was a fire, about The lake was 300 meters away, and they pumped water from there. This was sometime in 1962/63. The roof of the Horváth Matyi and his house also burned down, but the rest was saved. ; We learned from Ernő Pintér's stories that he witnessed a fire when he was barely 13 years old. They were on a football field, watching smoke coming from somewhere. When they went home, they saw that their chaff was burning. There was the forage harvester, the fodder maker, the straw bales. The little brother, who was 6 years old at the time, was playing with matches and burned the building down. Uncle Gyuszi got a beating from his parents, because he must have been the one who showed them how to use matches. It was funny that the people of the district put out the fire with volunteer firefighters. ; One of the last fires where volunteers put out the fire was in 1973. One Sunday, Dezső Sárai's wine house caught fire. The thatched roof burst into flames. The volunteers went past the Sunday table and, as best they could, dragged the furniture out of the house, trying to save the neighbors from the fire. They succeeded, but the roof became a prey to the flames. ; During our data collection and the preparation of the reports, we experienced that every volunteer movement and initiative is good for a community. It advances community life, helps in creating relationships, and preserving togetherness. That is why we found it important to deal with the history of the firefighting organization.