MONTICELLO – Sullivan County Public Safety Commissioner Scott Schulte is back from 14 days of fighting fires in Israel.
The fires and mass destruction were caused by the terrorist bombings by Hamas that began on October 7.
This was the eighth time Schulte went to Israel with the Emergency Volunteer Project; half were to assist in training the Israelis and half was in situations like this terror attack, but not as severe.
He first joined the effort because of “the intrigue and excitement;” He then developed the need to assist the Israelis who are under seize more often than not.
Schutle, who is not Jewish, termed the Hamas attacks “absolute savagery and heartbreaking.”
Many of the firefighters he has come to know lost friends and relatives, and in some cases their own lives. But, he felt relatively safe there since the Israeli firefighters were armed for their own protection and that of their American compatriots.
Now that Schulte is back home in Sullivan County, another group of volunteers has gone over to assist in the wake of the devastation caused by the rocket attacks.
