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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2018
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
Next regular update is Friday, November 2nd.
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CLICK to monitor HFD radio |
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Former Mayor Craig Henrici |
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Former Hamden Mayor Craig Henrici Passes Away
The former Legislative Council president served as mayor from 2005 to 2009
From Hamden Patch - HAMDEN, CT - Sad news to report this morning as former Hamden Mayor Craig Henrici has passed away after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer, according to the Hamden Town Center Park Commission. Henrici served two terms as mayor and was also a former Legislative Council president and state representative. The Hamden Town Center Park Commission wrote an emotional tribute on its Facebook page.
Please keep the Henrici family in your thoughts and prayers at this sad time.
Revised 10/26/2018
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Firefighter Milner Benham (1968) |
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Firefighter Milner Benham (1928 - 2018)
We have been notified, and are saddened to report, of the passing on Thursday, October 18th, of retired Firefighter Milner Benham (90) in Middletown, Connecticut, where he had been residing since earlier this year. For the previous 36 years since his retirement, Milner and his wife Joan had resided in Canaan, New Hampshire.
Milner Benham joined the Hamden Fire Department in December 1956 and was assigned to Platoon 2 under Deputy Chief Everett Doherty. When all personnel were re-assigned for the 42-hour workweek in 1970, Milner went to Platoon 1, where he remained until his retirement on the last day of 1981. Throughout most of his career he was at Station 4 riding the rescue.
Firefighter Benham was among the first eight of the department's certified paramedics when advanced life support services were first offered in 1976.
Please keep Milner's family in your thoughts and prayers at this sad time.
October 26: We have been informed that a Memorial Service will be conducted for Milner at Dunbar United Church of Christ, 767 Benham Street, corner of Dunbar Hill Road, at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 5th.
Revised 10/28/2018
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40 Years Ago
Friday, October 27, 1978
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Article courtesy of Gil Spencer |
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Times really have changed since this article appeared 40 years ago in the New Haven Journal-Courier. The 3-on/3-off schedule was replaced almost nine years ago by a straight 24-hour shift. Alarm bells no longer clang, causing blood pressures to rise. Nowadays it's a gradually rising tone signal. And with over 10,000 calls a year, "Several hours may go by with no call" is also a thing of the past. However there is one fact noted by the author that has not changed, "Paramedics are the most highly trained emergency medical personnel and can provide advanced life support to the most critically ill and injured . . ."
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40 Years Before That
- 1938 -
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In front of Old Station 3 - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Training with ground ladders was essential in the days before the department acquired its first aerial ladder truck, twenty years after these photos were taken during a training session at old Station 3 at 39 Putnam Avenue. The men here are training with a 45-foot ground ladder that required tormenters for stabilization.
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Asst. Chief August Ball directs the men - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Tormenters on the 45' Extension Ladder - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Firefighters tottering on the ledge with a roof ladder - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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On the roof - Now what? - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Unlike the photographer, the guys appear to be too busy to notice the young lady passing by. A Putnam Avenue resident, she is believed to be the future mom of a future HFD member.
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CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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The photographer positioned himself next to the 1926 Maxim ladder truck on Putnam Avenue, just east of the firehouse, aiming his camera toward the west. The light-colored traffic light in the distance is apparently to control traffic for the children crossing the street to get to Putnam Avenue School, which is tucked out of sight, between the two white buildings on the left.
Posted 10/27/2018
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And 40 Years Before That
- 1898 -
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CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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From 1896 to 1898, the Highwood Volunteer Fire Company's first quarters was on Alstrum Street. Pictured there, from left to right, are Charles Pellert, Samuel Williams, ? Doepensmith, George Madison (or maybe Joseph Jackson), John Mautte, unidentified, unidentified, unidentified, Thomas O’Connell, George Visel, Paul Ert, David F. Howe, Robert O’Connell, unidentified, unidentified, George Moore, Charles Loller, James Rogers, Dennis Keeley, Frank Butler, and Charles Groves.
The building in the background is the old Highwood Schoolhouse No. 13. It was destroyed in the July 1989 tornado. (Courtesy of the John DellaVecchia Collection, Hamden Historical Society)
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1898 at the New Lebanon Mission on Morse Street - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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In 1898, the Highwood volunteers moved their quarters to the New Lebanon Mission at 375 Morse Street. By the middle of the 20th century the old New Lebanon Mission was home to High Precision, Inc. The building was torn down in 1974. In 1909, the fire company built its new building in at Morse and Dixwell, where it remained an active fire station until October 1, 1951, after which it was sold to a private puyer. It still stands today.
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Rerun: October 26, 2012 Website Update:
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This photo was taken thirty years ago during the department's annual Fire Prevention Week demonstration at the Hamden Mart. Just why Ed Doiron is digging the hole isn't quite clear. Maybe a mighty oak stands there now. Strangers coming to Hamden today, however, would have no idea where to find that oak. Everything in the background is long gone and the typography significantly altered by the removal of thousands of cubic yards of earth. (Photo by Ed Doiron, Jr.)
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Governor Dannel P. Malloy today announced that – in accordance with a presidential proclamation directing flags to be lowered to half-staff throughout the country in honor of the victims of the mass shooting at The Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – U.S. and state flags in Connecticut will fly at half-staff beginning immediately until sunset on Wednesday, October 31, 2018.
----------- Please keep the Pittsburgh victims, their families and loved ones, and the first responders in your thoughts and prayers.
Posted 10/28/18
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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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