| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015
Website is updated the first and third Friday of each month.
Important interim updates will be posted when necessary.
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| CLICK to monitor HFD radio |
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Starting May 1st, all HFRA website updates will be posted twice monthly, on the first and third Fridays. As always, important interim announcements will be posted immediately.
Special editions may be posted from time to time, whenever major events or significant anniversaries occur. So please check back between regular semi-monthly postings.
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Farewell Battalion Chief Donny LaBanca
Pictures Tell the Story
Photos by Ff. Nelson Hwang
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| Platoon 3 - Wednesday, April 29, 2015 |
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Platoon 3 members gathered outside Station 3 Wednesday afternoon for a "good-bye" photo with their platoon commander, Battalion Chief Don LaBanca. Chief LaBanca started his career in 1978 as a firefighter on Platoon 3 and has been its shift commander for the last nine years.
Don retired the next morning following thirty-seven years of service with the Hamden Fire Department.
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At a mid-afternoon gathering, several "old-timers," three retired and one active, posed with Don in the kitchen at Station 3. (L-R) Firefighter Jay Connolly, now in his 35th year on the job and the department's newest most senior member; Chief LaBanca; Harold Mangler, who served continuously for 42 years, longer than anyone; Dave Johnson and Jeff Stoehr, both fellow Platoon 3 firefighters when Don came on the job in 1978. The five represent more than 170 years of service.
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Platoon 3 treated B/C LaBanca and everyone present with this cake commemorating Don's retirement.
(At left) B/C LaBanca received a "souvenir copy" of a February 1, 1979 department roster, one of the earliest rosters with his name on it. Don, who was Local 2687's last active Charter Member, noted that the 36-year old roster had 30 people on each shift.
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| Junior man gets served first. |
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| The new guy and the most senior guy |
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Batt. Chief Don LaBanca serves Ff. Mike Colandrea, junior man on Platoon 3, the first piece of cake at a mid-afternoon gathering at Station 3.
The following morning (right), before leaving the station, Batt. Chief LaBanca posed with Probie Firefighter/Medic Thomas Paranzino, the junior man on the entire department, as Platoon 4 presented Don with an outstanding expression of their appreciation of his 37 years of service.
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| Platoon 4 - Thursday, April 30, 2015 |
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Before the 0800 change of shift on Thursday morning, members of Platoon 4 and at least one recent department retiree gathered at Station 3 to bid farewell to Chief LaBanca before his final departure for home.
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MAY DAY 1970
It was a very different and tulmultuous era. Connecticut National Guard soldiers were stationed on the four corners of all central downtown New Haven streets. In Hamden, fire and police department preparations for the 1970 May Day Weekend were perhaps the most stringent since Pearl Harbor. Nine members of the Black Panther Party were about to stand trial in New Haven for the 1969 murder of an alleged FBI informant. Hamden's fire and police departments were among the many New Haven Area public safety agencies that went on high alert due to the possibility of civil unrest promoted by "outside leftwing agitators."
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| Courtesy of the Miller Memorial Library Microfilm Collection - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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The number of Hamden career firefighters assigned to each of three platoons, already bolstered by the impending addition of a fourth platoon several months later, was enhanced even further over the three-day weekend that began with Friday, May 1st.
Hamden's four volunteer fire companies also manned their stations continuously from Friday evening until Monday morning. For the first time in memory, if ever, a career officer was assigned to Station 5 for the Friday and Saturday night shifts, Lieut. Bill Hines on Friday and Capt. Paul Rosadina on Saturday. Department-wide anxiety was heightened ever further on Saturday night with reports of a bombing at Yale's Ingall's Rink on Prospect Street.
Fortunately, when the standby was all over, the only fire department activities in Hamden were a number of false alarms, most originating from Quinnipiac College (see the May 7, 1970 Hamden Chronicle article below).
Don Steele was the captain of Co. 5 at the time. At right is the page from his record book showing the May Day stand-by the company's volunteers. Other logbook entries list the remaining volunteer calls for the 1969-70 fiscal year, which ended on September 30th.
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| CLICK to enlarge |
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Brush fires, especially on Sleepiong Giant, usually covered large areas and were very time consuming. The two career firefighters assigned to Station 5 truly appreciated their volunteers for those jobs. Most of the "paid men" at 5's were also members of the company. Several of them are also mentioned among the volunteer personnel who responded. It was a very different era.
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| Courtesy of the Miller Memorial Library Microfilm Collection - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Hamden's Newest Firefighter
Probationary Firefighter/Paramedic Thomas Paranzino was sworn in as the newest member of the Hamden Fire Department on Monday, April 20th in the rotunda of Memorial Town Hall. Ff. Paranzino comes to Hamden from the UConn Health Center Fire Department, where he served as a paramedic. He will be assigned to Station 4 on Platoon 4.
Posted 5/1/15
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| Taking the oath from Town Clerk Vera Morrison |
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| Dad pins on Ff. Paranzino's badge |
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Chief David Berardesca, Ff. Paranzino, Commissioner Jim O'Brien and Curt Leng, representing Acting Mayor Jim Pascarella.
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| April 16, 1968 New Haven Register article courtesy of Chan Brainard |
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Forty-seven years ago this week Capt. Bob "Bubby" O'Donnell, a 21-year veteran of the department, was appointed to replace retiring Fire Marshal Al Purce. His appointment would officially take place a few months later when Purce officially retired, allowing O'Donnell to get some on the job training in the interim.
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| Photo courtesy of Sally Hines-Rowe |
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In 1954, when all three captains were summarily named to the new rank of battalion chief, all three lieutenants were promoted to captain, leaving vacancies in all lieutenant slots. Two years later, Bob was one of four firefighters promoted to the long-vacant lieutenant slots. His lieutenancy was the shortest on record. Eight months later, Bob was promoted to captain when Capt. Dan Hume was promoted to the newly created position of D/C Training Officer.
Posted 5/1/15
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Press Release from the Office of the fire Chief, April 28, 2015
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| Captain Ed Evers and crew members are shown setting up an in-station demonstration and training exercise at Station 4. |
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The Hamden Fire Department announces the purchase of new heavy equipment extrication equipment. A new “Griphoist”™ mechanical advantage device has been placed in-service on Squad 1. Squad 1 is located at Station 4, 2372 Whitney Avenue Hamden.
The Griphoist™ allows firefighters to move or support heavy objects with far greater safety and precision than previous methods. The hand operated machine, which can change from lifting to lowering quickly and safely, utilizes heavy cables and pulleys that are placed by firefighters at an emergency scene. The most common use for the new device is assisting in rescue efforts at motor vehicle accidents. Trained firefighters using this equipment can lift or roll cars, trucks, or heavy equipment to perform rescue operations.
The Hamden Fire Department responded to 322 motor vehicles accidents with injuries in 2014.
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