| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2017
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
Next regular update is Friday, October 6th.
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| CLICK to monitor HFD radio |
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60 YEARS AGO!
Mrs. Flagge's first day on the job
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| The Hamden Chronicle, October 3, 1957 (Hamden Historical Society) |
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| Older retirees will always remember Letitia Flagge, a cheerful and dedicated lady who was well liked by everyone. October 1, 1957 marked Mrs. Flagge's first day as secretary and clerk for Chief Raymond C. Spencer and Marshal Albert Purce. She was the department's first civilian and first female employee.
The members of the HFRA elected Letitia Flagge to Honorary Membership in 2011. "I think of the firemen all the time," said Mrs. Flagge after being presented with her membership certificate. "You were all wonderful guys to work with. This is one of the most wonderful things that could happen."
Mrs. Flagge retired in 1978 and passed away in 2014 at the age of 100.
Posted 9/29/17
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| August 2011 - Ret. Chief Jim Leddy and Ret. Marshal Mark Barletta present Mrs. Flagge with HFRA Honorary Membership |
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We regret to report the September 26th passing of Lt. Col. Fred W. Fletcher Jr., USAF (Ret.), son of the late Hamden Fire Department retiree, Firefighter Fred W. Fletcher Sr., who served on the department from 1946 until his retirement in 1980. Lt. Col. Fletcher (71), a decorated Vietnam War veteran, had resided in Georgia with his wife of 49 years, Carol Niles Fletcher. Please keep the Fletcher family in your thoughts and prayers at this sad time.
Posted 9/29/17
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Training at the Quarry in 1982
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| Photo from the John Tramontano Collection (HFRA.) |
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Firefighter/Paramedic Tom Conway and Lieut. Bill Coppola are pictured here in a 1982 training exercise at the quarry in Sleeping Giant State Park. They are lowering their packaged "victim," Firefighter/Paramedic Harold Prescher (a really good sport!), in a basket stretcher from the top of the quarry to the parking area below.
Posted 9/29/17
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Ancient communications hardware from Station 5
donated to the Connecticut Fire Museum in Manchester
(No, it's not the Gamewell tape register.)
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| 1953 - Firefighters Jack Laffin and Fred Fletcher with three volunteers on apparatus floor (Gilbert Spencer.) |
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Career Firefighters Jack Laffin (second from left) and Fred Fletcher (second from right) posed with three Co. 5 volunteers in this 1953 photo taken at Station 5.
On the shelf above the Gamewell tape register sits a modern desk telephone for 1953, a Western Electric Model 500 (still manufactured until the 1980s).
On the wall right above the modern phone is a c. 1910 Western Electric 295 walnut subscriber set with exposed gongs (see arrow). Known more familiarly as a "bell box," it was once connected to a Western Electric 51AL dial desk stand ("candlestick") telephone.
The old wooden bell box in the 1953 photo was removed from the wall in the early 1970s during a repaint of the apparatus floor and was fully restored years later.
In 2002, that same walnut bell box was donated to the Connecticut Fire Museum in Manchester along with the same type of candlestick telephone that was connected to it before the more modern telephone was installed.
The old dial desk stand telephone and bell box (below) still work perfectly at the Connecticut Fire Museum in Manchester.
Originally posted 6/21/13
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| Fully restored bell box from Station 5, with candlestick phone, donated to the Connecticut Fire Museum in 2002. |
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Gov. Malloy: Flags Lowered to Half-Staff in Honor of the Victims of the Tragedy in Las Vegas
Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that – in accordance with a proclamation from President Donald Trump directing flags to be lowered to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada – U.S. and state flags in Connecticut will fly at half-staff beginning immediately until sunset on Friday, October 6, 2017.
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| Ff. Edward Doiron |
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Firefighter Edward C. Doiron
(1938 - 2017)
We are deeply saddened to report the passing on October 4th of retired Hamden Firefighter Edward C. Doiron, at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, following a long and courageous battle with Parkinson's disease.
Ed served on the Hamden Fire Department from November 1964 until his retirement in June 1993. He was a charter member of the Hamden Professional Firefighters Association, Local 2687, I.A.F.F. and served as the local's first treasurer from 1979 to 1993. Ed also was a founding member of the Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. in 2009.
Ed's family invites all friends to call at Beecher and Bennett Funeral Home, 2300 Whitney Avenue, Hamden, next Thursday, October 12th, from 4 to 7 p.m. Services will take place at Beecher and Bennett on Friday, October 13th at 10 a.m. A link to Ed's complete obituary will be posted here shortly.
Please keep Ed's family in your thoughts and prayers at this sad time.
Posted 10/5/17
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Hamden Fire Retirees Assn. Autumn Meeting
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| Wednesday, October 11th, 12 noon
Hamden Elks' Lodge, 175 School Street
Memorial plaques will be presented to the families of
Firefighter Walter Vining and Firefighter William Davin
Menu to be posted later
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NEVER FORGET!
We will always remember our brother firefighters who made the supreme sacrifice, and the thousands of other innocent victims who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
Always keep them, their families and the FDNY in your thoughts and prayers.
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