| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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FRIDAY, MAY 4, 2018
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
Next regular update is Friday, May 11th.
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40 Years Ago
West Rock Park
May 3-4, 1978
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Forty years ago this week an arsonist was at work lighting numerous fires along Baldwin Drive on the western ridge of West Rock. Firefighters from Hamden, New Haven, Woodbridge, Bethany, and the state were kept very busy from late afternoon on Wednesday, May 3rd until well into the next day.
Some of the fires were extremely difficult to reach. Everything that could get into the area was pressed into service, including Co. 7's 1935 brush truck, a privately-owned 1952 Seagrave pumper, and even a motorcyclist donning an Indian tank.
Department chaplain Rev. Owen Sanderson, an active volunteer firefighter with Co. 7, is pictured below with Co. 7's 1935 Dodge, which was still in service at the time.
Rev. Sanderson is still the department's chaplain as well as chaplain for the Hamden Fire Retirees Association. Until recently, the HFRA boasted that "the Rev" was its only member who was not actually retired. But earlier this year, Rev. Sanderson announced his retirement after well over fifty years as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church on Shepard Avenue. He and Co. 7's 1935 Dodge are still going strong.
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| New Haven Register, Thursday, May 4, 1978 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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| New Haven Register, Thursday, May 4, 1978 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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The "Hamden Fire Department captain" mentioned in the Register news article at right (see red arrow), was Vol. Co. 5 Captain Don Steele, standing at left in the background. He assisted in the four-town firefighting effort with his own 1952 Seagrave pumper (pictured below), formerly Engine 2 of the Greenwich Fire Department.
Steele wasn't the only private owner of a pumper to assist Hamden firefighters in the past. While fighting a house fire on Calamus Meadow Road in May 1950, firefighters received valuable assistance from Co. 7 member Dwight Kirk's 1924 Stutz, previously in service from 1924 to 1942 at Merritt Street.
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| Cal Stoner photo for The Hamden Chronicle. |
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Co. 5 member Don Steele is pictured above standing on the running board of his 1952 Seagrave canopy-cab pumper. The pumper was originally Engine 2 of the Greenwich Fire Department. The pumper was involved in an accident in the early 1960s that resulted in its receiving a brand new "nose" with double headlights. Steele and other Co. 5 volunteers were photographed in March 1973 on Centerbrook Road during their monthly paper drive.
Posted 5/4/2018
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45 Years Ago!
Training at New Haven Fire School
On Saturday, May 5, 1973, Lieut. Gilbert Spencer and career Firefighters Dave Howe, Ed Doiron and Tony Melillo assisted New Haven Fire Department Drillmaster Capt. Charles Doll with numerous live fire exercises for seventeen volunteer firefighters Co. 5 at the NHFD's Hamilton Street training ground. Many of the exercises were documented by Ed Doiron in several dozen slides, some of which can be viewed by clicked on this photo.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW MORE PHOTOS
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| Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr. / CLICK for more photos. |
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63 Years Ago
Hamden's Civil Defense Fire Auxiliary
During the opening years of the Cold War, the Town of Hamden established a Civil Defense Fire Auxiliary, consisting of civilian volunteers as well as many members of Hamden's several active volunteer companies. Hamden's spare 1930 Maxim 600 GPM pumper, housed at Station 5, served as the Auxiliary's apparatus. Fire Marshal Al Purce, who was also Civil Defense Director, appointed Batt. Chief Paul Leddy to head the unit.
The guy in the suit on the left appears to be future career firefighter and lieutenant Dick Stacey, who joined the department in November 1956 and served for nearly 30 years before retiring on June 30, 1986.
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This article appeared in the March 6, 1955 edition of The New Haven Sunday Register.
Hamden's C.D. Fire Auxiliary
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Five Escape Smoke-filled House
Saturday May 1, 1955
1885 State Street
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A full assignment of apparatus was dispatched in the early morning hours of May 1, 1955 when a smoldering couch filled this house at 1885 State Street with lots of smoke. Merritt Street's Engine 6, manned by Firefighters Clem Kammerer and Fred Knudsen, was first in. The article does not give details on extinguishment efforts, but Ffs. Kammerer and Knudsen assisted a couple with their escape out the second story front window above the porch, presumably with a ground ladder. Two others escaped from a rear window, and a third from a side second story window.
Post 5/4/2018
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| New Haven Evening Register, Tuesday, May 3, 1955 (Chan Brainard) |
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| 1885 State Street Today |
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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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