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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2019
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
Next regular update is Friday, March 1st.
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House Fully Involved
Multiple Alarms for Monday Fire on Fallon Drive
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Monday, February 25 - At 2:52 this afternoon, Hamden Fire Department apparatus were dispatched to a reported house fire at 114 Fallon Drive at 14:52 hrs. Hamden Central Communications (911) received multiple calls reporting a house fire at this location. Engine 2 arrived on scene at 2:55 and reported a heavily involved structure with fire showing, and fire exposure to a nearby home.
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| Ffs. Matt Kellick and Ed Hilbert on an inch and three-quarter line |
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Neighbors were able to wake-up the sleeping male occupant of the home by banging on doors and windows. Through this quick action the homeowner was able to make it outside to safety. Unfortunately, the family dog was unable to escape and perished in the fire. Neighbors gave statements to Fire Marshal Brian Dolan regarding the quick spread of fire from the open carport to the attached home.
Firefighters on scene were challenged by gusting winds that accelerated the spread of the fire. A nearby home was damaged by radiant heat and had significant vinyl siding damage. Firefighters were able to keep the fire from extending into this nearby exposure.
The home experienced significant heat, smoke and water damage as a result of this event. The displaced family will be staying with relatives in the area. The homeowner and firefighters reported no injuries.
Fire Marshal Brian Dolan is investigating this origin and cause of this fire, and at the time of this release remains on-scene.
Responding companies: Engine 2, Engine 3, Tower 1, Squad 1, Engine 5, Engine 8 (vol), Rescue 2, Cat 3, Car 1, Car 5, Car 55, Car 56, and Hamden CERT. Mutual Aid coverage was provided by fire units from New Haven, North Haven, and Cheshire, as well as units from AMR.
Posted 2/25/2019 2030 hours
Website thanks to Chief Gary Merwede for the information and photo provided for this article.
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| New Haven Register, Tuesday, February 26, 2019 |
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| New Haven Register, Tuesday, February 26, 2019 |
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20 Years Ago
Department Acquires Thermal Imaging Camera
February 17, 1999
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| New Haven Register, February 17, 1999 |
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With $16,000 in financial assistance from the state and donations from the Hamden-North Haven Women's Club, the department acquired its first thermal imaging camera twenty years ago this week. State Senator Joseph Crisco (D, 17) secured the funding for the department.
Useful in fire suppression, as well as in overhaul, search and rescue, locating missing persons, size-up, and in various other operations, todays thermal imaging cameras are more compact than the unit shown in the photo, and every company has one.
Barbara DeNicola (R) served as Hamden's ninth mayor, from 1997 to 1999. Joseph Crisco served in the State Senate from 1993 to 2017. Firefighter Paul Anderson is now in his 25th year with the department.
Posted 2/22/2019
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75 Years Ago
Fire Sweeps Through Church Street School Classrooms
February 20, 1944
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| Humphrey Hall in 1949 |
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For the second time in a generation, the meeting rooms upstairs at Humphrey Hall in Station No. 2 served as temporary classrooms for Hamden grammar school students who were displaced by fire.
La Mesa, California resident Lil Larsen Peters, formerly of Hamden, was a 4th grader at Church Street School when the 1944 fire occurred. Lil recalled attending classes at the Circular Avenue fire station until repairs were completed at Church Street School.
The first time Humphrey Hall served as a schoolhouse was in 1913, when fire destroyed the 11-year-old District No. 11 [Hamden Plains] Schoolhouse on Dixwell Avenue near Mather Street. Built in 1902, it had replaced the "too small" original Hamden Plains schoolhouse built in 1795 (two photos below).
The original Church Street School building, which opened in 1914 (see photo below), was razed and replaced with the present building in 1990.
Posted 2/21/14
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| Church Street School, brand new in 1914 - CLICK TO ENLARGE (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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This 1914 class photo was taken when the old Church Street School first opened. According to the 1915 Town Report, the teacher in this photo was Miss Marion Gaffey, who earned $418 for the 1914-15 school year.
The aforementioned Lil Larsen Peters, a student at the school when it burned in 1944, shared DNA with one of the students pictured in this 105-year-old photo. The little blond girl in the front row, third from right, was Lil's mother, Lillian Lauritson Larsen (1907-1995).
Posted 2/21/14
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| District No. 11 Schoolhouse in Hamden Plains, built in 1795. It was closed in 1902 and moved to Alstrum Street, where it remains a private residence to this day. CLICK TO ENLARGE (Photo courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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| The original 1795 District No. 11 Schoolhouse now located on Alstrum Street (Government Solutions photo) |
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The first of the four schoolhouses for Hamden Plains students was built in 1795 on Dixwell Avenue not far from Mather Street. The town was divided into thirteen school districts. Hamden Plains was in District No. 11.
As Hamden's school population increased in the early 20th century, the old District No. 11 Schoolhouse was deemed inadequate and was closed in 1902. The building was moved to Alstrum Street, where it remains as a private residence to this day. The larger wood-frame schoolhouse that was built to replace it in 1902 burned down in 1913.
No photos of the second District No. 11 Schoolhouse are known to exist. It was replaced in 1914 by the more modern and much larger brick structure that became known as Church Street School.
Posted 2/21/14
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| Courtesy of the the family of Sid Trower |
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February 18, 1954
Sixty-five years ago this week, The Hamden Chronicle reported that the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association donated a pair of sterilizers to the Visiting Nurse Association of Hamden. The HPFSBA frequently made these types of donations to benefit local health agencies.
The HPFSBA, organized in 1948, was the bargaining unit for all non-management fire personnel until The Hamden Firefighters' Association was formed in 1978, the latter association being replaced the following year by the Hamden Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF. The HPFSBA continued as a benefits association for those Hamden firefighters who chose to belong, but was finally dissolved in 1995.
Originally posted 2/21/14
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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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