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July 2021
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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| The incident is unknown, but we think this is a great photo of Firefighter Mark Pratt, who served on the Department from 1973 until 1995. The red helmet denoted that Mark was assigned to a truck company at the time of the photo, which appears to have been taken in the late 1980s.
Mark worked most of his career on Platoon 3. Always a conscientious firefighter, between alarms Mark was a fountain of humor and great stories - and he still is. To newer members who joined the department after he retired, Mark is probably best known for his witty, sometimes edgy, but always respectful send-ups of new retirees at the annual retirement dinners.
Posted 3/7/14
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"Inside Baseball" Dept. - The caption above the photo refers to a common 1970s "Mark" expression and not to a recent retiree.
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Two Fires, 90 Years Apart, at a Long-Gone Area Landmark
Once a favorite meeting place for off-duty Hamden firefighters
Following up on last week's piece about New Haven's Hull's Brewery Rathskellar, where Hamden firefighters held several gatherings in the early 1960s, we want to thank former New Haven Fire Commissioner Bill Celentano, Jr. for use of his photos of a memorable August 1978 fire at the century-old building.
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Fresenius Brewery Fire
April 15, 1888
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Hulls' Brewery Fire
August 26, 1978
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| Photo by A. Bowman (New Haven Firefighters, 2005) |
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| Photo by William Celetano, Jr. |
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According to the 1888 New Haven City Directory, the NHFD had two ladder companies, Hook and Ladder No 1 at 40 Artizan Street, and the Quinnipiac Hook and Ladder No. 3 at the corner of East Pearl and Pierpont Streets. The apparatus in the above photo was the American LaFrance aerial ladder assigned to Hook & Ladder, No. 1, consisting of "an aerial truck on springs, drawn by two horses. Carries six ladders, ten hooks, four axes, two picks, four brass lanterns, two single lamps, and one crowbar. Company full, 14 men. Captain, Charles H. Hilton. Lieutenant, Charles Merwin. Driver, Wm. M. Page. Pilot, W.W. Miller." (Was the "pilot" the tillerman?)
There is no mention of a Hook and Ladder No 2 in 1888, but the New Haven City Year Book for 1908 states that NHFD Ladder Co. 2 was located at 444 Howard Avenue. In 1943, Truck Co. 2 moved up the street to new quarters that were converted from the old Washington School at 525 Howard Avenue. Shortly after the '78 Hull's fire, the Howard Avenue fire station was closed and razed. While a new Hill fire station was being constructed where the old station stood, a warehouse on Congress Avenue served as temporary quarters for Truck 2. The new Hill station was dedicated September 15, 1980.
Hamden never had horsedrawn fire apparatus, the only non-motorized apparatus being handdrawn. Hamden's first motorized unit was Mt. Carmel's used Model-T Ford, acquired in 1913 to tow its hose cart. Hamden first motorized fire engine was Whitneyville's 1915 Maxim 500 GPM pumper. At about the same time Hamden was getting motorized, big-city fire departments were motorizing their newer horsedrawn apparatus with gasoline-powered tractors.
The ladder truck in the 1978 photo appears to be equipped with some wooden ground ladders. In 1988, Lt. Clyde Stewart of Truck Co. 6 on Whitney Avenue informed us that the last run by a NHFD truck equipped with wooden ground ladders was on a mutual aid call to Hamden's Davenport Residence on May 25, 1988. Returning to quarters following the fire, the tractor-drawn Seagrave that had been Truck 6 was replaced by a newer truck equipped with fiberglass and aluminum ground ladders.
All Hull's Brewery photos by, and courtesy of William Celetano, Jr.
CLICK to enlarge any of them
Article revised 3/12/14
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| ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Hartford Courant, August 27, 1978, pg. 48A |
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| Looking north on Congress, corner of Bond Street |
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| Older Seagrave Ladder Truck |
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| Slated for demolition, it was nonetheless a sad end to a historic landmark |
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On October 13, 1978, New Haven police arrested a 14-year old neighborhood youth for starting the fire.
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Fishing for a squirrel?
Not one of the more dramatic roles of the fire service, but it went with the territory
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| "Fireman Harry Cubbellotti of Co. 2 fishing for squirrel on the chimney at 966 Prospect Street" was the caption on this I.A. Sneiderman photo, published in the New Haven newspaper on February 19, 1968.
Harry wasn't actually "fishing" for the squirrel, he was offering the animal a way to get out.
Squirrels and other small animals can enter homes through chimneys. Once inside, they are a potential threat to personal safety and can do significant damage property. But if the damper is closed, the animal is trapped inside the chimney, usually unable to escape up the sheer walls of the flue.
Dropping a rope down the chimney offers a way for the offending creature to climb out. Leaving the rope in place, the crew usually returns later in the day to see if the animal succeeded.
Posted 3/7/14
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April 1988 - This photo, previously published on the website, was taken outside the old repair shop at Station 2. Supt. of Alarms and Apparatus Paul Wetmore, Sr., hydrant maintainer Larry Gershman, and Asst. Supt. Mike Murray pose in front of Car 7, the superintendent's utility truck.
Posted 3/7/14
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 2014
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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October 1961
Old Third Platoon Demonstrates "The Net"
Using the old Plaza parking lot bandstand as a jumping off point, Firefighter Frank Eitler thrills the kiddies as he takes a fling at jumping into the net of Ladder 1.
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| I.A. Sneiderman Photo |
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Now it's Tramontano's turn. A quarter of a century later he will be leading the department.
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| I.A. Sneiderman Photo |
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| Chief V. Paul Leddy |
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March 14, 1966
Chief Leddy Stressed Department Inadequacies, Urged Improvements
Station 4: "antiquated" and "too small"
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In a New Haven Register interview 48 years ago this week, Chief V. Paul Leddy outlined numerous inadequacies and pressing needs of the Hamden Fire Department of the mid-1960s. During the next few years, Leddy's tenacious appeals to town leaders as well as the 42-hour workweek for line personnel resulted in many of the changes and improvements that were urgently needed.
But that was over 40 years ago. Hamden's population now tops 60,000 and emergency responses have been averaging around 10,000 annually, nearly ten times the number of responses in the mid-1960s. Department manpower, which increased considerably during Leddy's tenure, has been lowered by 23% over the past twenty-five years. And the last new fire stations, built in 1968 and 1970, are in sad shape. A recent three-year renovation of the 85-year old Station 4 enlarged and vastly improved conditions on the facility's second floor. But the renovation did not enlarge the apparatus floor, nor could it change the station's rather difficult location, both of these problems being reasons for Chief Leddy's 1966 appeal for a new fire headquarters - something that has yet to be realized after nearly five decades.
Posted 3/14/14
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Corey's Wayside Market
Sunday, March 17, 1957
It was a hot St. Patrick's Day in 1957 for Hamden firefighters when Corey's Wayside Market caught fire. The building was located at 2381 Dixwell Avenue, corner of Skiff Street, approximately where Town Fair Tire is today. Twenty-two years later fire gutted the nearby Corey Lumber Company, up the street at 2419 Dixwell, on a crazy night that culminated in another nasty fire at the Howard Johnson's Restaurant (now Hamden Town House) on Whitney Avenue. CLICK HERE: Corey Lumber Co. Fire - April 20-21, 1979
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| Postcard image from the collection of Mary Jane McGaffin, Hamden, CT |
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| Courtesy of Chan Brainard |
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December 1, 1983
118 Line Personnel
This would be the last department roster issued during the tenure of Chief V. Paul Leddy, who retired less than five months after it was issued.
With the appointments of Paul Durkin and Don Buechele in February 1982, the department operated at full staffing of 120 line personnel for the last time. (See "Rosters" - March 5, 1982) This would end in December 1982 with the sudden death of Firefighter/Paramedic Edward Charbonneau, who was one of the department's original paramedics. With no civil service list for entry level firefighter at the time, the vacancy was not filled and Platoon 2 ran with 29 instead of 30 personnel.
In early 1983, the new full-time staff position of Emergency Medical Services Coordinator was filled by Lieutenant Walter T. Macdowall, who also was one of the department's original paramedics. The lieutenant's vacancy created by Macdowall's appointment was filled by Robert Westervelt. With Macdowall's move to a staff position and the loss of Firefighter Charbonneau, the line was reduced to 118 personnel.
A few of the other line personnel were transferred in order to maintain adequate EMT and paramedic staffing on all platoons.
Posted 3/14/14
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2014
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to go to HGSRA webpage |
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| CLICK PHOTO |
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| FUNDRAISER
Connecticut Firefighters Pipes
& Drums Benevolent Fund
This Friday Night, March 28th - 5-10
Dunn's Pub - 2345 Whitney Ave.
$5 cover includes drinks specials,
food and live music.
Guinness will be engraving glasses.
Raffle, too!
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132 Santa Fe Avenue
Thursday, March 25, 1971
On a brisk March afternoon forty-three years ago this week, a boy delivering newspapers discovered fire coming from the roof of this colonial-style house on Santa Fe Avenue. Engines 3, 4 and 6, Ladder 2 and Rescue 2 responded with Car 30 (Deputy Chief Hromadka) and Car 40 (Chief Leddy).
Chan Brainard sent us this remarkable photo of fire breaking through the roof as Hamden firefighters with a hand line ascend the homeowner's ladder, already in place. The homeowner had been making repairs to the gutter using a torch to melt adhesive. Not surprisingly, the result was extensive damage to the roof and attic of this rambling Spring Glen home, and injuries to three Hamden firefighters.
The Santa Fe Avenue fire location was directly next door to the Brainard home at 12 Middle Road. All of these color photos were taken by Chan's mother! Chan was already living on the West Coast. His mom regularly mailed him news articles of local fire department activities, many of which are now in the HFRA archives.
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| Louise Brainard Photo |
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The article below refers to a "hidden attic." From inside the house, the fire floor was accessible only by way of a pull-down stairway located in the room above the garage. So firefighters popped the roof scuttle for an initial attack, and created openings elsewhere on the roof to achieve effective ventilation.
The man on the nozzle has been identified as Firefighter Joe Shields. The officer with him would have been Lieut. Dave Hermann. Both were assigned to Engine 3.
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| New Haven Register, Friday, March 26, 1971 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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| Louise Brainard Photo |
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The 1968 Maxim S model at left in the background is parked on the Middle Road side of the "fire" house, which faces Santa Fe Avenue. It is either Engine 3 or Engine 4. They were identical. The 1954 Maxim in the foreground is Engine 6, which had been quartered at Station 3 since it moved from Merritt Street six months earlier. Engine Co. 6 was de-activated in 1974.
Below left, a Hamden firefighter is on what appears to be the homeowner's extension ladder. All Hamden grtound ladders at the time were wooden. The photo on the right shows the extent of the damage to the attic and roof.
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| Louise Brainard Photo (CLICK to enlarge) |
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| Louise Brainard Photo (CLICK to enlarge) |
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Interior access to the attic was a problem, so the roof was breached in several places to reach the fire and to allow for ventilation.
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New Haven Parks Department
Park Road (Hamden)
Monday, March 14, 1977
A nasty fire in a New Haven Parks Department's storage building on Park Road kept Hamden firefighters of Platoon 2 very busy on a windy night thirty-seven years ago this past week. The building was already well involved before the arrival of the first engine, Engine 3. Firefighters' efforts were hampered by winds that threatened to spread the fire to adjacent buildings. Fire Marshal Bob O'Donnell determined that it had been set.
Posted 3/21/14
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| New Haven Register, Tuesday, March 15, 1977 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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Happy Birthday
this week to HFD chaplain
Rev. Owen Sanderson
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The New Haven Evening Register
March 25, 1957
(Courtesy of Chan Brainard)
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The New & Improved EM44
Website thanks to Bob Freeman, who heads Hamden's Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), for sending these before and after photos of Hamden CERT's command vehicle, EM44, which is currently being refurbished.
Bob wrote, "This vehicle is a tribute to not only the CERT Members but all of our firefighters, active and retired. As you well know, one of the main goals of the CERT Program is to assist our First Responders and contribute our share for the professionalism and dedication they provide."
Hamden's CERT volunteers are a credit to our community and public safety.
Posted 3/21/14
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Exterior cosmetics included a switch from green to red, but more improvements will be inside.
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| EM44 is stored at Station 3. |
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 2014
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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| CLICK to monitor HFD radio |
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"Thank you" to regular website visitor Joe for a great suggestion . . .
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HFRA SPRING MEETING COMING UP WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9th, NOON at the ELKS
Menu and agenda will be emailed/mailed to members next week.
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| CLICK PHOTO |
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| FUNDRAISER
Connecticut Firefighters Pipes
& Drums Benevolent Fund
Tonight! March 28th - from 5 to 10
Dunn's Pub - 2345 Whitney Ave.
$5 cover includes drinks specials,
food and live music.
Guinness will be engraving glasses.
Raffle, too!
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This week's update marks anniversaries of two noteworthy HFD emergency responses. The earliest was a fire at a North Haven chemical plant to which our department responded sixty-five years ago. The other, thirteen years later, involved a fuel oil spill into Lake Whitney. Today both emergencies would have been classified as Haz-Mat incidents, but were handled according SOPs in effect at the time.
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65 Years Ago!
The Carwin Chemical Co.
41 Stiles Lane, North Haven
Wednesday, March 30, 1949
The Hamden Fire Department responded to North Haven's Carwin Chemical Co., located at the end of Stiles Lane, which runs east of State Street opposite the end of Dixwell Avenue. Ironically, Hamden and North Haven fire oficials had met two weeks earlier and decided to discontinue Hamden's coverage of certain areas of North Haven as of the following October 1.
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| The Hamden Chronicle, Thursday, March 31, 1949 (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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The Stiles Lane site of the Carwin Chemical Co. was later occupied by the Upjohn Chemical Corp., which ceased operations in 1993. Recently the site has been undergoing a massive and very expensive decontamination.
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Pre-EPA Haz-Mat Situation
Fuel Oil Leaks into Lake Whitney
Thursday, March 29, 1962
A half-century ago the Hamden Fire Department, indeed every fire department, handled oil and gasoline spills in a similar manner.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO ENLARGE IT
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| The New Haven Register, Thursday, March 29, 1962 (Courtesy of Chan Brainard) |
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| Firefighter Howe |
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On March 19, 1941 at 4:30 p.m., Engine 4, Engine 5, the Squad and the Hook & Ladder were dispatched to the Peters residence at 2316 Dixwell Avenue for a reported oil burner fire. At 4:31 p.m., the ladder truck was struck by a Connecticut Company trolley car at the corner of Dixwell and Mather. Firefighter David F. Howe was driving. There were no other riders. Miraculously, Howe was uninjured.
The truck was deemed unsalvageable and was traded in for a brand new 1941 Diamond-T city service ladder truck from the Woods Engineering Co. in Topsfield, Massachuetts. The new truck was delivered in February of the following year.
Originally posted March 19, 2011
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This week also marks the 51st anniversary of the decision by the Hamden Board of Fire Commissioners to sell the 1941 Diamond-T ladder truck that replaced the truck totalled in the trolley car encounter. The $2,200 realized from the sale of the 22-year old truck went toward the purchase of Plectron radios for alerting members of the four Hamden volunteer fire companies.
Posted 3/28/14
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| Hamden Chronicle - March 28, 1963 |
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| Sold to New Milford's Water Witch Co. for $2,200 |
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Change of Underwear Dept.
"There, but for that telephone pole, go I"
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| This Journal-Courier photo dated March 28, 1966 was among hundreds of news articles donated to the HFRA a couple of years ago by Honorary Member Chan Brainard. It immediately caught our eye . . .
This "one-car crash" was nearly a two-car crash! Returning home from a movie, your webmeister and his younger brother were traveling northbound on Whitney Avenue. Less than two blocks from our street, this brand new dark green Chrysler Imperial came out of nowhere, barreling right at us.
At the last moment the driver veered into a telephone pole, avoiding a head-on collision with our car. The pole was directly in front of Russota's Paint store, where Keating Brothers is today.
No surprise: The Chrysler driver was pinched for "failure to drive in the proper lane." Today, charges also would have included something called "D.W.I."
- DGJ
Posted 3/28/14
CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
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