To our brothers and sisters who continue to serve in the fire, police and EMS services, in Hamden and elsewhere, we wish you and yours a Merry Christmas
and a very Happy, Healthy and Safe 2016.
Members of the Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc.
Donates Over 15 Thousand Dollars to Hospice of Connecticut
Twenty years ago this week the few remaining members of the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association presented a check for over $15,000 to Hospice of Connecticut following a vote to dissolve the organization one month earlier.
The Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association was organized in 1948 to provide financial assistance to paid fire personnel who were unable to work due to illness or injury. The Sick Benefit Association replaced the Hamden Fireman's Benevolent Association, which had been organized in 1932 by and for both paid and substitute/volunteer Hamden fire personnel.
When collective bargaining for public employees was legalized in the mid-1960s, the Sick Benefit Association's primary role changed to that of a bargaining unit for its non-management members, although modest benefits were still paid out to qualifying members.
In minutes of the January 14, 1967 meeting, Sick Benefit Association secretary Walt Macdowall wrote, "The Association received a letter from Mayor [John] DeNicola {Sr.] acknowledging this Association as the sole bargaining agent for The Hamden Fire Department."
Earliest surviving minutes - Meeting #2
The members of the Sick Benefit Association elected negotiators to negotiate their labor contracts and working conditions with town officials and department management. But there was a problem. The Association's membership also included the Chief, the Fire Marshal, the Deputy Chief shift commanders and the Deputy Chief Training Officer, all of them management employees at the time.
During the next decade, the majority of Sick Benefit Association members decided that all bargaining with management should be done by an association that was comprised exclusively of non-management employees. In early 1978, the department's four captains, eight lieutenants, 100 firefighters and two mainteanence personnel organized the Hamden Firefighters Association.
When the town stalled contract negotiations in 1979, the members of the Hamden Firefighters Association opted to join the International Association of Fire Fighters, thus becoming the Hamden Professional Firefighters Association, Local 2687 of the I.A.F.F.
With all labor-related matters now being negotiated by Local 2687, the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association reverted to being strictly a benefits organization, offering up to $100 annually to members with hospital expenses exceeding $100, as well as a $500 death benefit.
Membership now being optional, and despite the very low annual dues, the number of Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association members dropped dramatically over the next several years.
(Continued below)
The Hamden Chronicle, Thursday, December 28, 1995
The last regular meeting of the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association was held on May 12, 1982. In 1987, the Association was officially dissolved as a corporation by the State of Connecticut. In late 1995, those who had been members of the Sick Benefit Association as of 1982, whether they were now active or retired, were invited to a special meeting called to decide the future of the Association. Because of the 1984 resignation of the Sick Benefit Association's last elected president and the 1987 death of vice president Ray Reilly, the role of president fell to the senior trustee, Gil Spencer.
Thanks to some wise investments in the mid-1980s by the Sick Benefit Association's last elected treasurer, Ed Doiron, the Association's assets had increased three-fold by 1995. Various ideas on how to use the assets were discussed, including a scholarship fund. However, a scholarship fund would have required further administration of the organization's assets, which could not happen without re-incorporating and maintaining the Sick Benefit Association. The members finally decided to donate the funds to another non-profit organization.
From the minutes of the November 22, 1995 final meeting of the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association, "A motion was made by George Reutenauer and seconded by Francis Leddy that the Association liquidate all its assets, pay all outstanding benefits claims, and donate the remaining assets to Hospice of Connecticut, and that the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association thereby be dissolved." Following further discussion, the motion passed unanimously.
George Reutenauer and Francis "Chalky" Leddy were two of the original members of the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Bemefit Association when it was organized in 1948, Leddy being its first secretary. On December 22, 1995 Reutenauer and Leddy were joined by many other fellow members at Station 4 when they presented Hospice of Connecticut with a check for $15,484.50, a fitting Christmas gift and a shining example of the generosity of all past and present members of the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association.
Posted 12/25/15
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Francis Leddy, known affectionately to his men as "Chalky," and George Reutenauer both joined the Hamden Fire Department in 1946 after serving in the military during WWII. Leddy was promoted to lieutenant in 1956 and captain in 1964. He was named deputy chief in 1970 to command the new Platoon 4 and retired in September 1986. Francis Leddy passed away on February 22, 2002. His son, James, served as Chief of the Department from 2002 until retiring in 2006. Jim Leddy is currently an active member and trustee of the Hamden Fire Retirees Association.
George Reutenauer was promoted to lieutenant in 1961. In 1966 he replaced Everett Doherty as deputy chief of old Platoon 2. When the 42-hour workweek was established in 1970, he commanded Platoon 3 until his retirement in 1984. George Reutenauer passed away on June 20, 2005.
Firefighters Attempt to Save Ralston Avenue Home on a Brutally Cold Christmas Day
The last time Hamden firefighters had fought a major blaze on a Christmas Day was sixteen years earlier, when Reilly's Restaurant was gutted. That day in 1964 the temperatures were about 75 degrees warmer than the sub-zero Christmas Day of 1980, when fire gutted the Ralston Avenue home of a noted Hamden High School languages teacher and his wife. See the photos and article below.
Hamden Chronicle, December 31, 1980 (Courtesy of Chan Brainard)
Christmas Day 1980
Platoon 1 Engine 3 Firefighter Frank Kafka is pictured above helping to return a ground ladder to Truck 2 following the fire. The heavily damaged Ralston Avenue house was the home of retired Hamden High School languages teacher Clarence Grimes and his wife Katherine.
Right after returning home from his night shift at 5's, a firefighter took this photo showing 8 below zero about an hour before the fire.
From The Hamden Chronicle, Wednesday, December 31, 1980 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer)
*Public records confirm the spelling of Mrs. Grimes' name as "Katherine."
Old films about firefighters are always interesting to watch. Older firefighting tactics and procedures are often starkly different from those employed in today's departments, but sometimes they are very much the same, notwithstanding the many decades between.
In many ways the challenges facing the firefighters of yesterday are no different than those faced by today's firefighters.
This 1962 David Wolper documentary, "The Story of a Fireman," focuses on the experiences of a Los Angeles firefighter who strives for promotion to captain, the first level of supervision in the LAFD, and the many new responsibilities he must shoulder as a company officer.
Any firefighter, especially a new fire officer, will be able to identify with this fellow. The captain's leadership and his new responsibilities are eventually tested by a nasty house fire. Interesting stuff!
Even though a few of the more than fifty-year old procedures in this film are now quite out of date, this film is very interesting to watch.
Note the wages earned by LA firefighters in 1962 for a 62-hour workweek. (Believe it or not, the hourly wage for a Hamden firefighter in 1962 was even less.)
More of these videos will be featured here in the weeks to come. Enjoy!
The location of last week's photo of a horse-drawn water tower was originally thought to be San Francisco, but not so. Website contributor HFD Lt. Daryl Osiecki emailed the website last weekend to report that the ancient photo of the horse-drawn water tower was "from Washington DC and was assigned as Truck C. Truck C later became Truck 3. They currently operate the only Tower Ladder in the DCFD. Everything else is a tractor-drawn aerial. The photo was taken as the truck responded down F Street near the intersection of 13th St SW." Lt. Osiecki also provided a contemporary online image showing two of the same buildings seen in the older photo. Nice job!
