| Hamden Fire Retirees Association, Inc. |
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FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 2013
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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Servoss Street
Friday, May 20, 1988
This minor fire on Servoss Street was only the beginning. Platoon 2 would get hammered this week!
(Photos by Ed Doiron, Jr.)
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Platoon 2 fought this relatively minor fire in one of the satellite buildings at the old Board of Education complex on the corner of Servoss Street and Whitney Avenue. No one was hurt. (Two months earlier a major fire did considerable damage to the vacant main building on Whitney Avenue that was once Larson/Quinnipiac College.)
The next day, Platoon 2 responded to a fire in an apartment at Hamden Village on Treadwell Street took the life of an elderly woman who was smoking in bed. Four days later, on Platoon 2's first night, Commander Joe McDermott and his personnel would tackle a fire with the greatest potential for mass loss of life in the history of the Department, the Davenport Apartments at 125 Putnam Avenue. Hundreds of elderly residents were quickly evacuated through a massive effort by Hamden firefighters and mutual aid, and no lives were lost.
Posted 3/8/13
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| Cmdr. Joe McDermott can be seen at the right hand side of this photo, as firefighters prepare to "Scott up" and advance a line into the building. (CLICK to enlarge) |
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| OUT! |
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| Lt. Bob Viglione and Firefighter Mike DiStefano |
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| Lt. Bob Viglione, Ff Jimmy Dunlop, Capt. Dave Johnson, and Lt. Clark Hurlburt - Blue helmets were worn by paramedics. Red helmets were worn by personnel assigned to truck companies. |
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| November 30, 1999 - Firefighters Bob Kenney and Eddie DeFrancesco refueling at Public Works (Photo by Bob Mordecai) |
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| March 1988 - The New Haven Register (Courtesy of Jim Koutsopolos) - CLICK to enlarge for easier reading |
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| Car 55, later "Brush 5", on the ramp at Station 5. This 1960 GMC with four-wheel-drive was bought by the members of Co. 5 in 1969 from the Town of Woodbridge for $800. The members added Indian tanks, brooms, a booster reel, a 150 gallon tank and a small pump powered by a two-cycle engine. The result was a vehicle perfect for fighting ground cover fires, especially on Sleeping Giant, where it could easily traverse the gravel trail to the Tower. (Frank Wegloski photo) |
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September 28, 1875
New Haven Web Company
Whitney Avenue at Mill River
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| This article was transcribed from an image obtained online from ProQuest Historical Newspapers |
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| This 1868 map of lower Centerville (CLICK to enlarge) shows the small building where, from the newspaper description, the fire likely got started. It communicated with the larger wood-framed buildings through a 50' long wood-lined shaft. The entire complex, built around 1840, was destroyed and replaced with a rambling mill-style factory building which remained on the site until 1940. (1868 Hamden Map courtesy of D.G.J.) |
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The New Haven Web Company
"The Web Shop"
March 1, 2013 - Today marks the 38th anniversary of one of the most famous, or infamous, fires in Connecticut history - the March 1, 1975 Shelton Sponge Rubber Co. Fire. So this week it seems oddly appropriate to feature an 1875 Hamden conflagration that destroyed a manufacturing complex that was of great importance to Hamden's economy exactly one century earlier.
One of the most notable Hamden fires of the 19th century for which there is a newspaper account occurred on Monday, September 27, 1875, when several buildings owned by the New Haven Web Co. burned on the east side of Whitney Avenue at the Mill River (see 1868 map above), approximately where the Route 15 overpass crosses over today.
According to an article (at left) published the following day in the Hartford Daily Courant, the fire began in a small building at the rear of the complex and spread through a wooden shaft to other, larger buildings which were all part of the New Haven Web Company factory.
Hamden had no organized firefighting forces or apparatus in those days. The entire complex was destroyed. It was replaced shortly thereafter by a rambling brick factory, which remained on the site until it was razed around 1940 to make way for the Wilbur Cross Parkway.
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HFRA member Tom Doherty recalls that his grandfather and namesake, Thomas Doherty, was a dyer in a cloth factory in Taunton, Massachusetts, where he settled after arriving from Ireland in the late 19th century. Around 1900, the elder Doherty settled in Centerville with his wife and their ten children, which included Tom's father, Everett, who served on the Hamden Fire Department from 1927 until his retirement in 1966. While working as a dyer at the Web Shop, Mr. Doherty developed a process for making a permanent dye.
Hamden's first full-time fire marshal, Albert Purce (1903-1978) and Hamden firefighter Mario "Bucky" Serafino (1909-2001) both worked at the Web Shop prior to coming on the fire department. Centerville Co. 4 volunteer firefighter, Edward D. Meegan, was employed at the Web Shop at the time he was killed in the line of duty in December 1927.
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CLICK on the photo below to view several more classic images of this impressive complex which, in its sixty-five years, provided jobs for hundreds of Centerville residents. (More photos added 3/3/13.)
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| The Web Shop - c. 1910 (Photo courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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| Former Site of the Web Shop (Photographed in March 1976 by DGJ) |
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| Summer 1978 - Firefighter Guy White at Station 3 on Platoon 3 is pictured here in the process of consuming a giant sundae following a Friendly's "bail out." Guy, who lives in Florida, joined the HFRA in December. The planter behind the couch is long gone (and definitely forgotten, too). |
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| 1986 - Firefighter Dave McDermott was in the driver's seat of Engine 5 as Frank Wegloski shot this photo of the 1968 Maxim, which was specially packed with 1800 feet of LDH for the north end. |
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"Dont' forget to wear your spats!"
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| The Hamden Chronicle, Thursday, February 19, 1953 (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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Many a Hamden fireman was a customer at the Sleigh House over the years. Sadly, about forty years after this ad appeared in The Hamden Chronicle, the Sleigh House building became one of OUR customers.
Posted 3/1/13
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| Photo from a 1921 program celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Highwood Volunteer Fire Association. (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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ICE RESCUE TRAINING
February 2002
February 15, 2002 - Bob Mordecai took these photos of Firefighters John Longo and Seth Patrick in wetsuits during ice rescue training at Clark's Pond on Sherman Avenue in Mt. Carmel.
Posted 2/22/13
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| CLICK to enlarge |
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| HFRA Honorary Member Chan Brainard poses next to three 1920s era Ahrens-Fox piston pumpers at the Long Beach (California) Fire Department Museum. Note that each of these pumpers is right-hand-drive, which was common on open-cab American fire apparatus until the early 1930s, ostensibly to make it easier for the driver to "spot" the hydrant (although these pumpers had intakes at the front).
These odd looking piston pumpers, with their distinctive expansion tanks, were capable of supplying great quantities of water from draft. Drafting from the Housatonic River, Shelton's 1938 Ahrens-Fox supplied several pumpers, including Hamden's 1973 Maxim Telesqurt, during the March 1, 1975 Sponge-Rubber Co. fire.
Posted 2/22/13
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c. 1982 - The 1951 Maxim 750 GPM, Engine 19 of the West Woods Volunteer Co. 9, sits on the ramp at Station 9.
(Photo by and courtesy of Frank Wegloski)
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HFRA Honorary Member Helyn Callahan Ramelli Barbato
It is with deep regret that we announce the passing on February 9th of honorary HFRA member Helyn Callahan Ramelli Barbato, mother of our brother retiree, Ray Ramelli.
Helyn was wife of the late Pasquale Barbato. She was predeceased by her first husband, Hamden firefighter Alfred Ramelli, brothers Robert "Ace" Callahan, also a Hamden firefighter, and John Callahan, and sister Joyce Moulter.
A Private Celebration of Life will be held for family and friends. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Inc., 26345 Network Place, Chicago, IL 60673-1263.
To read Helyn's complete obituary, published in today's edition of The New Haven Register:
Our thoughts and prayers are with Ray and the Ramelli, Callahan and Barbato families.
Posted 2/17/13
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The Blizzard!
With 40 Inches of Snow, Hamden Got the Worst of It!
Unless you've been hibernating this past week, you are undoubtedly aware that Hamden received the heaviest snowfall - 40 inches - of a major blizzard that struck the northeast last Friday into Saturday.
What some of our website visitors may not know, however, is the amazing effort put forth by Hamden Fire Department personnel during this unprecedented winter weather emergency, second only to the legendary Blizzard of 1888, which occurred eight years before Hamden's first fire company was organized.
Throughout what will surely become known as the Blizzard of '13, the Hamden Fire Department, challenged by extreme weather conditions as never before, worked tirelessly to provide emergency services to Hamden residents with utmost dedication and professionalism and, in some cases, in unique and creative ways.
Click on the link below to read the article on the Hamden Professional Firefighters' Association Local 2687 website on how the officers and firefighters of the Hamden Fire Department dealt with the hazards, uncertainties and physical hardships posed by the Blizzard of '13 in order to save lives and property in our town during this very trying week.
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| Read Susan Campbell's Column |
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And please check out Susan Campbell's spot-on column, published in the February 13, 2013 edition of The New Haven Register. Everyone should read it!
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| CLICK TO ENLARGE |
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| 1965 - We thought Firefighter Gilbert Spencer was demonstrating a Rockwood SG-60 nozzle behind the Sleeping Giant Jr. High School, now the Commons at Mill River. But since this photo was posted, Gilly has informed us that Engine 4 was there to simply water the lawn - TRUE! Must've been a drought year. (Photo by I.A. Sneiderman) |
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| Ff. Meegan |
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| We recently received a very special card of appreciation, which reads in part . . .
We want to sincerely thank [the HFRA] for all the effort of bringing to light the details of my Uncle Ed Meegan's death in the line of duty in December 1927.
I feel quite honored to have the Mayor proclaim Dec. 10th Edward D. Meegan day. I feel quite honored to have the memorial presented to me.
Please extend our sincere thanks to the Mayor, Chief, Asst. Chief, Fire Marshal and all others involved.
Most sincerely,
Inez and Phil Shea
May God Bless You.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Posted 2/15/13
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| Inez Shea |
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| c. 1967 - Volunteers of Co. 9 are checking for hot spots following this stubborn grass fire off Gaylord Mountain Road near the power lines. Co. 9's 1942 Diamond-T 600 GPM pumper can be seen in the background. (Photo by I.A. Sneiderman) |
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35 Years Ago!
Daw Packing Co.
School Street and Washington Avenue
Friday, February 3, 1978
February 8, 2013 - As we anticipate what meteorologists tell us may be one of the worst blizzards of the 21st century, we are reminded that 35 years ago, just three days before one of the worst blizzards of the 20th century, a multiple alarm fire on a freezing cold night gutted the Daw Packing company at the corner of School Street and Washington Avenue. The building started out as a school in the late 19th century. CLICK on the photo to read more.
Originally posted in 2009
February 15, 2013 - ED. NOTE: The meteorologists were a bit conservative. Hamden got 40 inches of snow, making it the worst blizzard to hit the area in 125 years.
Revised 2/15/13
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| © The Hamden Chronicle - February 10, 1978 |
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| September 1950 - The Hamden Chronicle (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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34 Years Ago Hamden Firefighters Took Steps to Join the I.A.F.F.
Since collective bargaining for guardian services personnel was permitted in the 1960s, the Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association, established in 1948, had been the bargaining unit for non-management Hamden Fire Department personnel. This created a problem. The Fire Chief, Fire Marshal, the four Deputy Chief shift commanders, and the Deputy Chief training officer, all management positions at the time*, were also members of the Sick Benefit Association and could attend meetings during which negotiation strategies were discussed - although this seldom happened.
In 1978, Hamden's non-management fire personnel formed the Hamden Firefighters' Association and successfully petitioned the state to designate the new association as the sole bargaining unit for Hamden firefighters and fire officers below the rank of deputy chief. The Hamden Firefighters' Association was fairly short-lived, however. In early 1979, more than 90% of all non-management fire personnel signed to join the International Association of Fire Fighters, thus establishing the Hamden Professional Firefighters Association, Local 2687, IAFF.
The Hamden Paid Firemen's Sick Benefit Association continued to provide members with limited medical, retirement and death benefits, but membership was optional. The Sick Benefit Association was dissolved in late 1995, and its assets donated to Hospice.
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*The Marshal and five Deputy Chiefs joined the union in 1982.
Posted 2/8/13
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| The New Haven Register - February 13, 1979 |
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| February 7, 2013 - 4th Platoon at Station 3 - (L-R) Engine 3 Crew: Ff. Mike DeLine, Jr., Ff. Doug O'Rourke, Lt. Paul Kobbe - Tower 1 Crew: Capt. Ron Desroches, Ff. Dave Beaton and Ff. Daryl Osiecki. |
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| 1963 - Fire training at the Winchester Powder Farm off Putnam Avenue. These buildings were located approximately where the Davenport-Dunbar Apartments are today. (Newspaper photo courtesy of Chan Brainard) |
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Hamden's First Aerial Truck
(1958 - 1990)
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| A tidy sum in 1958, but mere pocket change when compared to what Tower 1 cost in '12. |
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| 1958 - Maxim factory photo of Hamden's brand new white 75' Junior aerial ladder truck just before delivery. This was Hamden's first open cab apparatus since the 1930 Maxim 600 GPM pumper that was Engine 5 until 1953. It would also be its last. (Photo courtesy of Chan Brainard) |
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| c. 1980 - Truck 1 is parked on the ramp at Station 5, where it was assigned from 1976 until 1984. A soft top was added when the truck was painted red in 1971. It kept the driver and rider fairly dry, but did little to protect them from frigid temperatures. (Wegloski photo) |
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| 1986 - Now designated "Truck 2," a spare, the '58 Maxim sports a white soft top to conform with the Department's new color scheme for apparatus. The truck remained a spare until 1990, when it was sold to a private buyer. It was eventually junked for the value of its metal content. (Wegloski photo) |
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The HOME page contains postings from the past FOUR weeks only.
All previous weekly updates, from April 1, 2011 on, may be viewed by going
to the menu tab "HOME (Archived)."
Articles about fires and other major incidents can be retrieved from the "Action!" tab.
Other articles may be retrieved by going to the "Past Articles" tab.
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| CLICK here to visit the official website of the Hamden Professional Firefighters, Local 2687, I.A.F.F. |
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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 eleven years ago on September 11, 2001.
Always keep them, their families and the FDNY in your thoughts and prayers.
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