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FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2019
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
Next regular update is Friday, May 31st.
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ANNOUNCEMENT
June 16, 2019 will mark the 10th anniversary of this website. After ten years of editing this website, I will be ending the weekly Home page updates on Friday, June 28th.
The site will remain active, just the way it was when it started in 2009, with periodic announcements, special features, and the occasional commemoration of a significant fire, emergency, or department event. And, of course, the archives will continue to grow and be available to our members and subscribers. D.G.J.
385 Weekly Updates - 5 to go!
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To all HFD retirees:
Chief Gary Merwede and Local 2687 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 27th.
HFD personnel and retirees in their dress blues are asked to assemble on the Parkway side 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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| Capt. Naples |
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Naples Promoted to Captain
The website is pleased to report the Hamden Board of Fire Commissioners has promoted Lieut. Jeff Naples to Fire Captain. He replaces Capt. Hugh O'Callaghan, who retired recently to become the Asst. Fire Chief in West Hartford.
Capt. Naples will be sworn in next Wednesday morning, May 29th, at 10 in the town hall rotunda and will be assigned to Station 3 on Platoon 3. As always, HFD retirees are welcome to attend the swearing-in, which will be covered in next week's update.
Posted 5/24/2019
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| Firefighter Shields |
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Shields Retiring After 22 Years
Next week, the HFRA will be welcoming its newest member, veteran Hamden Firefighter Kevin Shields. Kevin's last day on the job will be next Thursday, May 30th. We have been informed that Platoon 3 is planning a 2:00 p.m. farewell gathering for Kevin at Station 3 on his last shift. We will have pix for the next update.
Kevin was appointed to the career department in September 1997 and had served previously as a member of Dunbar Hill Co. 8. Kevin's dad, Firefighter Joseph Shields (1929-2008), served on the department from 1960 to 1980.
The members of the HFRA welcome Firefighter Shields into the fold and wish him many happy and healthy years ahead.
Posted 5/24/2019
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75 Years Ago
May 22, 1944
Savoy Restaurant Fire
2392 Whitney Avenue
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| This I.A. Sneiderman photo Courtesy of Chief Paul Wetmore (Ret.) |
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Seventy-five years ago this week, the Savoy Restaurant at the corner of Whitney Avenue and School Street sustained significant damage in a fire.
Sometime in the late-1950s, Reilly's Restaurant moved into the building at Whitney and School when the Savoy moved across the street, about a block north, into a brand-new building at 2427 Whitney. The Savoy moved again a couple of years later, this time to Dickerman Street in Mount Carmel.
The Savoy restaurant finally closed decades later, replaced by Viva Zapata!. It is now Side Street Cafe. When the Savoy moved to Mount Carmel, its former location at 2427 Whitney was sold to Connecticut Savings Bank and the building has housed various banks ever since.
The building at Whitney and School seemed to be jinxed by fire. Twenty years after the Savoy blaze, Reilly's Restaurant was totally gutted by a Christmas Day fire. Photos and the story of that blaze can be accessed through index in the "Firefighting" tab on the website menu.
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| From Francis "Bud" O'Connor's "The Melting Pot" in The Hamden Chronicle, May 21, 1953. (See also article immediately below.) |
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The 1949 photo below shows the original Savoy Restaurant in relation to surrounding buildings, including fire headquarters (Station 4), where Chief Spencer's 1946 Pontiac "Sedanette" is parked on the ramp.
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| The Savoy (upper right) in 1949. (Abrams photo courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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Hamden Fire Department
Apparatus Inventory
May 1944
Station 1 – Highwood
Engine 1 – 1942 Diamond-T 600 g.p.m. pumper - Delivered 4/6/42 - $4,375
Ladder 1 – 1941 Diamond-T city service ladder truck - Delivered 2/11/42 - $6,000
Station 2 – Humphrey
Engine 2 – 1938 Seagrave 600 g.p.m. pumper
Station 3 – Whitneyville
Engine 3 – 1928 Maxim 750 g.p.m. pumper
Station 4 (Headquarters) – Centerville
Engine 4 – 1939 Diamond-T 500 g.p.m. pumper
Squad – 1938 Diamond-T e/w 150 g.p.m. pump
Station 5 – Mt. Carmel
Engine 5 – 1930 Maxim 600 g.p.m. pumper
Station 6 – Merritt Street
Engine 6 – 1926 Maxim 500 g.p.m. pumper
Station 7 – Mix District
Engine 7 – 1935 Dodge 150 g.p.m. pumper
Station 8 – Dunbar Hill
Engine 8 – 1925 Seagrave 150 g.p.m. pumper
Spring Glen Volunteers
Established 1942
Trailer Unit – 1942 Maxim 500 g.p.m. "Blitz Buggy" - Purchased 4/42 - $1,662
Pine Rock Volunteers
Established 1942
Trailer Unit – 1942 Maxim 500 g.p.m. "Blitz Buggy" - Purchased 4/42 - $1,662
Additional Inventory
A November 1942 description of the Department, written by
Albert Molleur stated, "two old pieces . . . are held in reserve . . ."
Reserve - 1924 Stutz 350 g.p.m. pumper
Reserve - 1919 Seagrave 750 g.p.m. pumper
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Eddy Doiron captured Lt. Joe McDermott with Firefighters Walt Vining and Dick Stacey 49 years ago in this photo taken in the vicimity of Waite and Greenway Streets. Lake Whitney can be seen in the background.
Joe McDermott and Dick Stacey were both veterans of World War II. Walt was a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War.
Dick, who became a lieutenant a couple of years after this photo was shot, was in the United States Marine Corps. Joe was promoted to captain in September 1970 and promoted again three years later to deputy chief (shift commander).
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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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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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Remembering Hamden's Fallen
When Hamden's Memorial Town Hall was opened in 1925, it was dedicated to Hamden's fallen of the First World War. Their names were enshrined on the walls of the rotunda. Then came World War II, when 72 of Hamden's sons gave their lives in defense of Freedom. Their names were added to the rotunda wall. Korea, Vietnam, and Afghanistan followed, and the names of those Hamden servicemen lost in those wars were added.
This week we remember all of these men who, "for your tomorrow they gave their today."
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Requiescant in Pace
"May they rest in peace."
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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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