We are in the process of archiving all weekly updates by the month. All of the weekly updates for this month are on this page.
Just scroll down to locate the desired update.
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, MAY 2, 2014
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
Next regular website update will be on Friday, May 16th.
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| 9/8/1994 - Lieut. Bill Fitzmaurice |
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| 9/8/1994 - Prescher Photo Bombs Chase |
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100 Years Ago
The Humphrey Drum Corps
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| Members of the Humphrey Drum Corps next to the Humphrey Fire Station (Photo courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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This photo of the Humphrey Drum Corps was found in the archives of the Hamden Historical Society last week. The members of the corps, pictured above next to the Humphrey Fire Station on Circular Avenue, were probably affiliated with the Humphrey Hook and Ladder Fire Association, although the bass drum states "HIGHWOOD." The members appear to be wearing typical marching band uniforms of the era, which also look a lot like fire department dress uniforms. The exact date of the photo is not known, but it could have been taken as early as 1913, when the fire station was built.
Posted 5/2/14
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ROB CALLAHAN is the son of the late Robert "Ace" Callahan (HFD, Ret.) and current HFRA honorary member Nancy Callahan. We have just learned that Rob is suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).
Rob is a musician. His many friends in the music world have scheduled an all-day benefit concert in Hamden on Saturday, May 31st to help Rob and his family. We hope that our website visitors will spread the word about the concert among their friends and perhaps lend some support.
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| Robbie Callahan |
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| Ticket Prices:
$25 for All-Day Access - in advance
$30 for All-Day Access - at the door
Ages 21+
Buy Tickets online:
concert organizers are collecting checks mailed to:
"Robbie's Fund For Life"
100 Good Hill Road
Oxford, CT 06478
If you're interested in showing your support but do not plan to attend the event, you may make an online donation with PayPal:
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May 31-June 1 - 2 p.m. to 1 a.m.
The Ballroom at the Outer Space
295 Treadwell St, Hamden
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Could have been a lot worse!
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May 2, 1964
West Todd near Hillfield
This pre-WWII automobile was already ancient when it flipped over on West Todd Street 50 years ago this week. Lt. Bill Hines examined a piece of the auto while Ff. Gil Spencer rummaged around inside the car, possibly to ensure that the gasoline tank was not leaking.
In the dim dark days before mandatory seatbelt laws and airbags, it's amazing the six teenage passengers survived. The car did not.
By 1964, this late 1930s car - it looks like an Olds - was just an "old car," probably worth fifty bucks. But if you ran down to Bradford Ford that week fifty years ago, you could have picked up one of those new Ford Mustangs for only $2,368.
Posted 5/2/14
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| New Haven Register, Sunday, May 3, 1964 (Courtesy of Chan Brainard) |
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40 Years Ago
Faulty pumper injures North Haven fire chief; results in mutual aid from Hamden
North Haven firefighters had their hands full early Monday afternoon, May 6, 1974, while fighting a working house fire at 46 Mountain View Terrace, which runs east off Whitney Avenue near Spring Glen School.
According to news accounts, West Ridge Co. 4's brand new apparatus was in pump gear and pumping water when it suddenly jumped back into road gear. The pumper lurched forward and crashed into Chief John Rosadini's car as he was removing his gear from the trunk. The chief sustained a knee injury and was transported by ambulance to the hospital. Hamden's Engine 3, Engine 4, Ladder 2 and Rescue 1 were dispatched to the scene to assist North Haven.
Posted 5/2/14
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| The New Haven Register, Tuesday, May 7, 1974 (Courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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At right, Hamden's Ladder 2 can be seen in the background as North Haven Fire Chief John Rosadini is wheeled to the ambulance. The chief, who narrowly avoided serious injury or worse, was treated for a knee injury.
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2014
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
No update this week.
Next regular website update will be on Friday, May 16th.
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| CLICK to monitor HFD radio |
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MAY 16, 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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This week marks a fifth anniversary. On Monday evening, May 11, 2009, 22 retirees of the Hamden Fire Department met at Liberty Community Church in North Haven for the organizational meeting of what would become the Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc.
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| TO OUR WEBSITE VISITORS - In order to continue to keep our Home Page fresh and interesting for all website visitors we will continue to post previously unpublished photos and articles with each Friday website update.
In keeping with the HFRA's goal of preserving our history, and as the result of numerous positive comments and suggestions received in recent weeks from members and non-members, historic photos of various Hamden landmarks and locations will also be featured more frequently.
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New material is always welcome from website visitors who have old HFD or Hamden photos. Click the "Contact Us" tab on the website menu for information on how to submit material
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The Center of Hamden 65 Years Ago
This 1949 aerial view of Centerville is profoundly different from the way the center of Hamden looks today. CLICK to enlarge the photo. Chief Raymond C. Spencer's 1946 Pontiac can be easily seen on the ramp in front of Fire Headquarters, as it was known in those days. And there's more. Check the numbered landmarks.
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| Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society (Abrams photo, dated 1949) CLICK to enlarge |
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(1) The last few panels of Hamden's World War II Honor Roll, on the future site of the Miller Memorial Library (1951).
2) Grace Episcopal Church in its original location. It was moved directly across the street in September 1966.
(3) Colonial Drive was just being developed. #48 and #54 are under construction.
(4) The Savoy Restaurant is on the corner of School Street, in the same building that Reilly's occupied a decade later. The Savoy suffered a serious fire in May 1944. Twenty years later, when it was Reilly's, the building was totally destroyed by fire on Christmas Day.
(5) A rambling home that once stood at the corner of Whitney Avenue and Colonial Drive. In the 1980s it was moved around the corner, (6) where it is now #42 Colonial Drive.
(7) Future site of the Brown Stone House, built later in '49. The large wood-frame building that previously occupied the property burned down in February 1941.
(8) The one and only Charlie Crook's Drug Store. Originally the home of Leverett Candee (c. 1852) "who obtained from Charles Goodyear the first license to use Goodyear's patent for producing rubber shoes."‡ The building was razed in 1981. ‡From Historic Hamden; A Guide (1976: Hamden Bicentennial Commission)
Posted 5/16/14
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| A great time and fine food & drink. Support the July 27th HVFF Hamden Independence Day fireworks display, which is supported through private donations. |
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| May 1967 - Lt. Joe McDermott at old Station 3 (Ed Doiron, Sr. photo) |
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There was a time when Hamden was still a small town. And many small towns had a weekly newspaper. Our's was The Hamden Chronicle, published once a week starting in August 1946. Perusing the pages of early editions of the Chronicle, you sense that nothing ever escaped the radar of the Chronicle staff.
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Every Thursday, The Hamden Chonicle featured an incredible amount of hard local news, sports, opinion pieces, as well as social news from every neighborhood in town, to name just a few categories. Every Chronicle reader knew what was going on at town hall. If someone burped - we were actually thinking of another word - it was probably reported in the Chronicle the following Thursday.
Among our favorite Chronicle features were the delightful, sometimes irreverent folksie anecdotes about local politicians, cops and firemen that were usually overheard in the Brown Stone House or Aldo's barber shop and shared weekly with Chronicle readers. Yep, there was a time when Hamden was just like Mayberry.
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| Hamden Chronicle - May 21, 1953 |
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This 1953 item about a now-legendary Hamden fireman (before he was a Hamden fireman) appeared in Chronicle editor Francis "Bud" O'Connor's weekly column, "The Melting Pot." (The photo is ours.)
For several years The Hamden Chronicle was voted the best weekly in New England.
Posted 5/16/14
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| May 21, 1977 - Ff. Ralph Tomaselli, working extra on Platoon 3, awaiting the night shift in front of the station. |
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"Hey man, look what you did to my HAIR!"
May 21, 1977 - Firefighters Johnson, Tomaselli and Pratt out on the patio at Station 3. It was Mark's birthday. (Yeah, lots of hair here.)
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MAY 23, 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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NEW FEATURE
Website visitors may now navigate back (← PREVIOUS) and forth (NEXT →) between all adjacent archived HOME pages.
As always, the index of ALL HOME PAGES may be visited from any archived HOME page.
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To all HFD retirees:
Once again, Local 2687 and Chief David Berardesca invite all HFD retirees who still have their dress blues to join the active HFD members in Hamden's Memorial Day Parade next Monday, May 26th.
HFD personnel and retirees in their dress blues are asked to assemble on the sidewalk in front of the Hamden High School at 0900. The parade starts at 1000, and will proceed up Dixwell Avenue from the high school to Whitney Avenue.
Participation in Hamden's Memorial Day Parade has always been a tangible way for our firefighters to honor those who sacrificed their lives in the defense of our country. It is also a time to remember our deceased brothers who once marched with us.
The weather for Memorial Day is predicted to be excellent with temps in the 70s. Last year we had several retirees in the line of march and we expect to have even more this year.
The HFRA wishes everyone has a safe and meaningful Memorial Day!
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| Co. 3 Member Joseph Hetherington's Badge #147 |
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| Whitneyville Badge Donated by Member's Daughter
Last week HFRA member and former Whitneyville resident Bob Slater received an email from Marie Hetherington Noble, another former Whitneyville resident now living in Rhode Island. Mrs. Noble knew Bob had been a Hamden firefighter. She asked Bob if he could recommend a good home for Whitneyville Volunteer Fire Co. 3 badge #147, issued to her late father, Joseph Hetherington (1903-1990), when he was a member of Co. 3 sometime before 1940.
Bob referred Mrs. Noble to the Association. After the exchange of a few emails, Joseph Hetherington's Co. 3 Badge #147 was received here to become part of the Associations "archives." The Hamden Fire Retirees Association sincerely appreciates Mrs. Noble's donation.
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PARADE READY ON MERRITT STREET - c. 1930
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| Photo courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society |
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c. 1930 - Eleven members of the Merritt Street Volunteer Fire Co. No. 6 in parade dress pose beside their 1924 Stutz 350 g.p.m. pumper. If you enlarge the photo and look carefully, you may find two more people hidden in the photo (reflections do not count). The house in the background is still standing today at 1898 State Street.
Posted 5/23/14
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MAY 1964
This Week's Special - 1961 Caddy (Slightly Used)
Fifty years ago Hamden firefighters were called to a Dixwell Avenue used car lot to extinguish a fire under the hood of this 1961 Cadillac. (The car looks fairly beat up for being only three years old, which is probably why it caught fire.)
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| CLICK to enlarge |
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Anyone who worked in a gas station in those days knew that almost all hood releases on American cars were either part of, or inside the grille - and nearly all of them were different. So it was anyone's guess just how to raise the hood of this fiery clunker. Fortunately a passerby knew the magic formula so firefighters could finish their mission and put out the fire. Note the 1960 Plymouth and 1959 Ford flanking the Caddy.
From The Hamden Chronicle (Courtesy of Chan Brainard)
Posted 5/23/2014
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| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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| CLICK here for daily flag status |
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FRIDAY, MAY 30, 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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Firefighter Joseph Yoga
(1942 - 2014)
May 27 - We deeply regret to announce the passing of our brother retiree Joe Yoga last Sunday morning at Connecticut Hospice in Branford.
Funeral Mass was held on Friday morning, May 30th, at St. Thomas Becket Church in Cheshire.
Joe started his fire service career in 1959 as a member of the Mt. Carmel Volunteer Fire Co. No. 5, and was appointed to the career department in 1965. While attempting the rescue of a young woman from an apartment fire above the Merryfield Veterinary Hospital on Shepard Avenue, Joe suffered a severe back injury that forced his retirement from the department in 1980.
Following his retirement, Joe served as a dispatcher for the Cheshire Police Department for twenty-two years. Joe was an active member of the HFRA and regularly attended meetings during the past five years.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Joe's wife, Lillian, and the rest of the Yoga family.
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| Photo courtesy of Local 2687 (CLICK to enlarge) |
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SIXTY YEARS AGO
In its May 27, 1954 edition, The Hamden Chronicle published this photo of eight Hamden firefighters, all WWII veterans, who attended fire school in New Haven.
From left to right:
Appointed in 1951, Joe Collins served on the department for six years.
Warren Blake (1923-2009) remained with the department for thirty years, retiring in 1979. Warren was on leave from the department during 1950-51 to return to duty in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.
With 31 years of service, Ken Harrington (1919-1988) retired in 1980 as Deputy Chief/Training Officer.
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John O'Hare, the rookie of the group, retired in 1991 after 38 years with the department. John regularly attends the quarterly meetings of the retirees association.
Francis "Chalky" Leddy (1921-2002) was brother of Chief V. Paul Leddy (1919-1994) and father of retired Chief James Leddy. He served 40 years with the department, retiring in 1986 at the rank of Deputy Chief (Commander of Platoon 4).
Art Smith (1912-1983) retired in 1977 after 31 years of service. He was an active member of the Humphrey Volunteer Fire Association.
George Reutenauer (1919-2005) served 38 years, retiring in 1984 at the rank of Deputy Chief (Commander of Platoon 3).
Bill Esposito, barely visible in the photo, served with the department from 1949 until 1960.
Former Hamden firefighters Joe Collins and Bill Esposito left the department well over fifty years ago. We do not know of their status or even if they are still with us. Any information on either of these two gentlemen would be greatly appreciated.
Posted 5/30/14
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Memorial Day 2014
Website thanks to Steve Randall for these photos
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| Photo by Steve Randall |
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| Co. 7's 96-year old Brockway, always a crowd pleaser (Photo by Steve Randall) |
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| Co. 8's Dave Lockery's 1946 Maxim on a Diamond-T chassis. Between 1938 and 1977, Hamden had four of these Diamond-T pumpers manufactured by Woods Engineering. (Photo by Steve Randall) |
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| The Hamden Chronicle, June 3, 1954 (Hamden Historical Society) - CLICK to enlarge |
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| Until 1971, Memorial Day was always observed on May 30th. In 1954, Memorial Day fell on a Sunday, so the parade was held the following day.
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FYI Dept - The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 mandated that starting in 1971 four federal holidays would be observed on a Monday. Washington's Birthday (February 22nd) was moved to the third Monday of February. Although not officially part of the Act, this ostensibly combined the observances of Lincoln's birthday (February 12th) and Washington's birthday into what is popularly known as "Presidents Day."
Memorial Day, observed tradi- tionally on May 30th, would be observed on the last Monday of May. Columbus Day, traditionally October 12th, would be observed on the second Monday of October. And Veterans' Day, traditionally observed on the anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, November 11th, would thenceforth fall on the fourth Monday of October.
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In 1978, Congress moved Veterans' Day back to its traditional November 11th date. In recent years, many unsuccessful legislative attempts have been made to move Memorial Day back to the traditional May 30th date.
Posted 5/31/14
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Hamden's First and Second World War Rolls of Honor
(Photos courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society)
In 1917, after the United States entered the 1914-1918 "World War," as that conflict was known before WWII, the names of Hamden residents in military service were displayed on a "Roll of Honor" that was situated on the front lawn of the old town hall, as seen below in a 1918 photo.
U.S. military records indicate that future career department members Ralph Rosson (1887-1972) and Clement Kammerer (1894-1973) both served in the U.S. Army during 1918.
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| Hamden Town Hall, Whitney and Dixwell (1888-1923) |
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From 1942 until 1951, Hamden's World War II Honor Roll stood on the site of the future Miller Memorial Library building at 2914 Dixwell Avenue (now gone). The names of Hamden residents who served in the armed services during World War II were displayed on many large wooden panels.
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| Hamden's World War II Honor Roll was located on Dixwell Avenue, where Miller Memorial Library was erected in 1951 |
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It is not clear exactly what happened to the World War II Honor Roll panels after they were taken down for the construction of Miller Memorial Library. Some former Public Works employees have speculated that the panels wound up in a Public Works garage once located on Norwood Avenue and, sadly, were eventually discarded.
Posted 5/30/14
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Memorial Day
Saturday, May 30, 1970
Sharing a few photos from Memorial Day 1970, the last year that this national day of remembrance was always observed on May 30th. From 1971 on, Memorial Day would always be observed on the last Monday of May.
Posted 5/30/2014
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| Ffs. John Reynolds, Charlie Carlson, Bob "Whitey" Williams, and Dave McDermott - CLICK to enlarge |
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| From R-L: 1965 Mack, 1958 Maxim 75' "Junior" Aerial Truck, and 1968 Maxim S-Model. The ladder truck was painted red the following year - CLICK to enlarge |
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| Co. 9's 1929 Seagrave Aerial Ladder Truck (Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr.) |
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| The reviewing stand at town hall. (Photo by Ed Doiron, Sr.) |
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USMC Iraq War Veteran & Hamden Volunteer Alumnus
Promoted to Lieutenant in S.C. Fire Department
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| Lieut. Chris Lewis (center) and crew, Burton Fire District, Beaufort, SC |
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| Chris Lewis, a longtime member and alumnus of Hamden's Mt. Carmel Volunteer Volunteer Co. 5, has been promoted to Lieutenant in the Burton Fire District of the Beaufort [South Carolina] Fire Department.
Prior to becoming a career firefighter, Chris served eight years in the United States Marine Corps, during which he was deployed several times. During his last deployment to Iraq in 2004, Chris was severely injured in an attack that claimed the lives of six of his brother Marines. Seven days after his discharge from the USMC in 2009, Chris was appointed to the Beaufort Fire Department.
The members of the HFRA congratulate Lieutenant Lewis, wishing him a long, productive and safe career. We are especially proud that Chris' fire service career started here in Hamden. Thank you for your service to our country, Chris!
Posted 5/30/14
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