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FEBRUARY 2021
Important updates will be posted immediately.
Last updated on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021 - 1115 hrs
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| CLICK to monitor HFD radio |
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for official COVID-19 notifications
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For the duration of the COVID emergency all password protected pages, except Members Only pages, are open to all website visitors.
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Cornell Scott-Hill Health CENTER:
Administering COVID Vaccines in Hamden Starting March 1st
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February 20, 2021
Fire Destroys Garage - House Saved
Mutual Aid - 1911 Whitney Avenue, No. Haven
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Between Short Hill Road in Spring Glen and the Mill River at the northbound parkway entrance in Centerville, the Hamden-North Haven town line goes right down the middle of Whitney Avenue. When the garage at 1911 Whitney Avenue caught fire earlier this afternoon, the North Haven dispatcher contacted Hamden for mutual aid. For the rest of the story CLICK HERE!
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80 Years Ago
Malavolti Building Destroyed, formerly Sackett Hotel
Whitney and Dixwell
Tuesday, February 18, 1941
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| © 1941 - New Haven Evening Register |
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$15,000 was the estimated loss when fire gutted the 111-year old Malavolti building at the corner of Whitney and Dixwell Avenues on the night of February 18, 1941. The fire in the two-and-a-half story combination commercial-residential wood frame building was believed to have started when faulty electrical wiring led to an exploding gas meter.
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| Empty Lot Until 1949 |
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Ten residents of the second floor apartments escaped without injuries. Hamden firefighters worked through the night to contain the blaze to the building of origin. The Hamden branch of the American Red Cross assisted the ten individuals who were displaced by the fire.
The building was condemned and razed, leaving a vacant lot on which local kids played softball until the Malavolti family built the Brown Stone House Restaurant on the site in 1949.
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| Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society |
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Centerville House
What was to later become known as the Malavolti Building, started out as a hotel in the early 19th century. The former Centerville House, also known as the Sackett Hotel, fronted on Dixwell Avenue at the intersection of Whitney Avenue.
According to an article puiblished years ago in The Hamden Chronicle, the hotel was built in 1830 and also had a popular tavern. The wrap-around veranda disappeared sometime before it became a multiple commercial building in the early 20th century.
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A Thoughtful Token of Appreciation
The website has a number of good friends who live far from Hamden. Among them is Mel Kooper of Temple Terrace, Florida. Over the years Mel has sent in numerous photos of apparatus he has spotted in his travels throughout the southeast. Earlier this week, Mel sent this photo of members of his church posing with the on-duty crew of his local Temple Terrace fire station.
Mel reported that the members of Temple Terrace's Mission Hill Church had just presented each of the TTFD personnel with "a thank-you card and a gift card for what they do." He said that he was honored to be there.
Even though serving the members of our community is our job - our mission - members of the fire service everywhere, active and retired, sincerely appreciate being appreciated. Thank you, Mr. K. for sharing this with us!
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In the above photo, Mel is the fellow directly below the last "T" in "DEPARTMENT." Looking at the photo, to the immediate right of Mel is Mission Hill Church's Pastor Gary McNeal.
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Mel wrote, "The ambulance that is behind us is probably the one that took me to the hospital 4 1/2 years ago when I had the heart attack." Mel is doing just fine now.
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| Photo by Mel Kooper - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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| Photo by Mel Kooper - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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Mel took this photo of Temple Terrace's Pierce Ten-8 model pumper a few days earlier while he and his wife were at the grocery store. The crew of this pumper was on a food run for their 24-hour shift.
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The Hamden Fire Department had Pierce apparatus starting with a 1978 mini-pump on a Ford chassis, then two 1984 Pierce Dash 1000 gpm pumpers, followed by the 1990 and 1991 rear-mount aerial ladder and tower trucks. It is worth noting that the "CLASS 1" painted on the sides of their rigs denotes the Temple Terrace ISO rating. Nice!
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The "Ten-8" designation for this particular Pierce moded is an interesting one for us older Hamden retirees. Until 1984, "10-8" was the HFD radio code for an all-hands working fire. How many of us remember the old " 10 CODES"?
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Honorary Member Corine "Rena" Vreeland
1924-2021
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We are deeply saddened to report the passing of HFRA Honorary Member Corine Vreeland on February 8th, at the age of 96. Rena was the widow of our late brother retiree, Firefighter Raymond Vreeland (1925-2002).
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In addition to her husband, Rena was predeceased by her parents, Carlo DaVia and Corina Baldwin DaVia; and her siblings, Antoinetta Rey, Irma Bernasconi, Lindo DaVia (Lenny), Genevieve Proto, Luigi DaVia (Louis) and Theresa D'Onofrio. She is survived by her children, Thomas Vreeland of Hamden and Patricia Lomeland (Luke) of Wareham, MA; her grandchildren, Leah Bradley (Scott) and Tyne Jeffrey (Andrew); her great grandchildren, Nathan and Lydia Jeffrey; and her sister Quinta Platino Raccio of Hamden.
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Friends may visit with her family at BEECHER & BENNETT FUNERAL HOME, 2300 Whitney Ave, Hamden on Thursday, Feb. 11, from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. prior to her Mass of Christian Burial that will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. in Christ the Bread of Life Parish / Blessed Sacrament Church, Circular Ave, Hamden. Burial will follow in Beaverdale Memorial Park, Hamden. To send a condolence to her family, please see: www.beecherandbennett.com.
Posted 2/9/2021 - 1540 hours
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Fully Involved Truck
21 Pershing Street
February 1 - Website thanks to Chief Gary Merwede, whose Twitter posting featured this dramatic photo of a pickup truck coimpletely engulfed in flames in the parking lot at 21 Pershing Street.
"Engine 2 battling a fully involved truck fire and the weather on Pershing Street. No injuries." The personnel of Engine 2 made quick work of dousing the flames.
Posted 2/2/2021
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| Photo courtesy of Chief Gary Merwede - CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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80 Years Ago
Another mutual aid call ends a busy month for Hamden.
But first . . .
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Saturday, January 25, 1941
Fire seriously damages two-family home on Millis Street
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The Hamden Fire Department and departments in several adjacent municipalities got hammered by several major fires eighty years ago this month. The New Year started with a fire that destroyed Cheshire Academy's ancient Horton Hall. Hamden and several other area towns sent apparatus to Cheshire. A few days later the old Peck School on Hillfield Road was destroyed by a suspicious fire (see January 2021 website update).
Then on Friday, January 24th, fire department records show that every fire company in Hamden responded to a blaze that caused $22,000 ($365,000 today) in damages to the Connecticut High Test Sand and Gravel Company on Haig Street. We have no articles about that fire, but we're working on it.
The next day, fire seriously damaged a two-family home on Millis Street. The loss was estimated at $3,000 (over $50,000 today).
Finally, on the last day of January, a massive fire destroyed much of the North Haven Congregational Church at the corner of Church and Linsey Streets. (And there would be one more major blaze in February, too. Stayed tuned.)
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| New Haven Evening Register, Monday, January 27, 1941 (Steele Collection) |
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. . . then five days later:
North Haven Congregational Church
Friday, January 31, 1941
Hamden, New Haven and West Haven are called to assist the No.H.F.D.
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| Interior gutted |
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According to the news accounts, the fire in the 28-year old North Haven Congregational Church was discovered "shortly before 9." With fire breaking through the roof just as water began to flow, it was immediately clear to North Haven fire officials that mutual aid would be necessary.
Department records indicate that Hamden received the alarm at 8:54 p.m. Engine 4, Engine 5 and the Squad responded. Hamden firefighters were praised for their quick response and actions to save the unburned portions of the building with the use of the deck gun on the 1938 Emergency Squad.
New Haven sent Truck 6 out of the Edwards Street station, and West Haven sent Savin Rock Hose Company 4 out of the station at 28 Holmes Street. 1st Asst. Chief Francis Spaine of the New Haven Fire Department directed operations along with company officers from North Haven and West Haven.
By the time the fire was finally knocked down, massive amounts of water and frigid temperatures had left a six inch layer of ice on the floor of the church. The last Hamden unit rang back in service at ten minutes past one on Saturday morning, February 1st.
The beautiful stone church, completed in 1913, replaced the original church that had burned down in 1911. Despite the best efforts of the firefighting forces, the newer church had to be razed as well. It was eventually replaced by the more modern looking brick building in the color photo below.
The news article gave the church's location as "Quinnipac Avenue near Broadway." It was actually located on North Haven's Church Street, a small stretch of road that connects the end of Maple Avenue, an extension of Quinnipiac Avenue, with Broadway.
According to the log book of all Hamden Fire Department activity from October 1931 to September 1941, the property loss was estimated at $80,000 ($1.35M today).
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CLICK on the news article below to enlarge it for easier reading
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| The New Haven Evening Register, Saturday, February 1, 1941 (G. Donald Steele Collection) |
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CLICK on the above news article to enlarge it for easier reading
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| Chan Brainard photo (1957) |
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Older HFD retirees (much older) and ardent website visitors are familiar with Chan Brainard's 1957 photo of Hamden's 1941 Diamond-T city service ladder truck that was manufactured by Wood Engineering Co. of Topsfield, Massachusetts.
Chan recently provided a link to a page on the Awesome Diecast website that featured a spot-on replica of that old ladder truck, complete with "HAMDEN" markings. Your webmeister immediately clicked "Buy Now" (do not tell his wife), and this model now sits among his memorabilia.
What is still a mystery is just how the folks at Awesome Diecasts replicated perfectly all the specifications for this rather unusual ladder truck, although the box it came in featured a small booklet with this photo and a couple of others. Beautiful work. Check it out.
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Photo of the '41 Diamond-T model captured from Awesome Diecast's website (with their permission).
| The Diamond-T ladder truck model on display
in the HFRA webmeister's home office.
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Governor Lamont Directs Flags Lowered To Half-Staff in Remembrance of the 500,000 Americans Lost To COVID-19
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that – in accordance with a proclamation from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. directing flags to be lowered throughout the country as a mark of solemn respect for the 500,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19 – he is directing U.S. and state flags in Connecticut to fly at half-staff beginning immediately until sunset on Friday, February 26, 2021.
CLICK HERE for the Governor's entire proclamation.
Posted 2/23/2021
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To HFRA regular members:
Your 2021 dues are due
(Disregard if you've already sent it in)
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Except for checks that are mailed in, annual HFRA dues are usually collected in person from members who attend the October and February meetings. However, the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions prevented an in-person October meeting and next month's meeting on February 10th will also have to be another "virtual" Zoom meeting. So . . .
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For your convenience, and to save you the 55-cent postage cost, we are providing this PayPal button for remitting your $15 annual HFRA dues. Your acknowledgement will be a printable 2021 dues card with your name.
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NOTE: Only retired members of the Hamden Fire Department may join and pay dues to the HFRA. Honorary Members and the general public do not pay dues.
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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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