JEFFERSONVILLE –– It’s the middle of the night and a frantic homeowner smells smoke, sees flames. A call goes out to the Jeffersonville firehouse. Peter Cummings, at home with his pager and cell phone on a nightstand, rushes into high gear.

The pager beeps: a specific signal for a building fire or another signal for a motor vehicle accident.

Cummings speeds to the firehouse which, luckily, is about a two-block ride from his home. Most likely, he’s the first fireman to respond – at the hefty age of 90 years old.

“Pete is a one-and-only” said Jeffersonville Fire Chief Jon Mall. “He’s a great guy, loved by all. For the last two years, he’s responded to more calls than anyone else. He’s told me that he does it to help his neighbor.”

Last Saturday, some 75 or more people held their breaths as Cummings approached the firehouse for a surprise birthday party. Escorted by son Thomas, Pete was duly amazed: there were his daughters Ruth and Susan and a roomful of admirers.

Food, fun and a new Carhartt jacket emblazoned with his name and  “Jeffersonville Fire Department” was all a big surprise to Cummings.

“I had no idea at all,” he said later. 

When asked, Cummings agreed that “ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to help people to help my ‘brother man.’”

He’s the kind of guy who routinely stops to help a female in distress with a flat tire.

Cummings was born on January 30, 1933 at the Callicoon hospital, then situated near the top of Olympia Hill. He studied at a one-room schoolhouse in the Beechwoods and finished high school in Delaware Valley School in Callicoon.

Eventually, he started farming in the Beechwoods, then went into the sheet-metal business with membership in the Sheet Metal Union for two decades. 

Later he hauled tractor trailers, and then worked with bulldozers. He served as highway superintendent for the Town of Callicoon and retired at age 84 from excavation work. 

Now apart from the fire department, which he joined some 50 years ago, he enjoys reading books on history, particularly local lore, and subscribes to some 35 magazines. He’s also a member of a hunting club near Lew Beach.

A word to the wise? “Help other people,” said Cummings. “That’s how the world should be.”