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July 2021
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| Hamden Fire Retirees' Association |
DAILY FLAG STATUS
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
| CLICK on the Members Only page in the above menu to access the January 10th meeting minutes
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From the February 9, 1964 Edition of The New Haven Register
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| © 1964 New Haven Register (Article courtesy of Gil Spencer) |
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Capt. Paul Rosadina and Firefighter Harry Cubbellotti are seen here doing home fire inspections in early 1964. The white 1959 Maxim pumper was Engine 2 at the time.
Paul Rosadina came on the job in October 1946, was promoted to lieutenant in 1956 and captain in 1961. In 1972, he was promoted to Deputy Chief (shift commander) following the retirement of Joe Hromadka. He retired to Virginia in 1985, and passed away in 2003.
Harry Cubbellotti, who is a member of HFRA, joined the department in December 1957 and retired in July 1993. He currently lives in Hamden.
Posted 2/3/12
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Sleeping Giant Parking Area - 2002
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| August 11, 2002 - Firefighters Augie Williams, Roberta Angiletta, Harold Mangler, Joe Anderson, Lt. Sam DeBurra and B/C John Spencer. Engine 4 in the background is the new 2001 Marion HME. The older gentleman by Engine 4 is not identified. (Photo by Bob Mordecai) |
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Lieut. James Strain is pictured here with Chief Raymond C. Spencer's 1951 Pontiac Chieftain Deluxe "Eight" two-door sedan at the Repair Shop in back of Station 2. This car listed for $2,026 without an AM radio and heater. The four-speed hydromatic transmission added $159 to the price.
Pontiac and Packard were the last American cars to offer "straight-8" engines (eight cylinders in a row). Straight-8 engine production for both makes ended with the 1954 models. Straight-8s ran very smoothly, but lacked the torque of V8s. Hamden police also drove Pontiac Eights in the early 1950s.
Chief Spencer's '51 Pontiac was eventually traded in for a brand new 1956 Pontiac with a V8 engine.
Posted 2/3/12
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| Chief Spencer's 1951 Pontiac Chieftain Straight-8 - Lieut. James Strain at Repair Shop behind Station 2 |
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| Hamden Fire Retirees' Association |
DAILY FLAG STATUS
CLICK here!
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
| CLICK on the Members Only page in the above menu to access the January 10th meeting minutes
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The Local 2687 Annual Dinner will be held Saturday, March 24th, from 7-midnight, at the Laurel View C.C.
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60 Years Ago!
Mutual Aid to Cheshire
Hamden firefighters and firefighters from virtually every other surrounding town responded "mutual aid" to Cheshire on Monday, February 11, 1952, when fire destroyed the Waverly Inn, a very popular restaurant on Maple Avenue.
Thought to be the work of a "fire bug," this was was the fourth in a string of suspicious fires that had plagued the town since the previous December.
The Waverly Inn was rebuilt and ready for occupancy in about seven months. Decades later it became the Waverly Tavern, a banquet hall for special occasions. It went out of business a few years ago.
In January 2012, the business reopened in the same Maple Avenue location - once again as the Waverly Inn.
Posted 2/10/12
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| From The Hamden Chronicle, February 14, 1952 (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) CLICK on the photo to read the entire article. |
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| CLICK to enlarge |
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November 1953 - Engine 3, the 1951 Maxim, is shown at a barn fire in the State Street area. Engine 3 would have been second due, as this area was in Engine 6's backyard. What appears to be a junked delivery truck in the background is marked "East Rock Super Market." (Photo by Chan Brainard)
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| February 10, 1996 - Following a tour of Station 3 for a local nursery school, someone snapped this photo of the kiddies with the crew of Tower 1. |
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| Hamden Fire Retirees' Association |
DAILY FLAG STATUS
CLICK here!
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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Next HFRA meeting is at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10th at the Elks!
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The Local 2687 Annual Dinner will be held Saturday, March 24th, from 7-midnight, at the Laurel View C.C.
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| Guy White, Ralph Tomaselli and Chick Manware |
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Former Hamden firefighter Guy White sent these five photos from his first year of the department. At left, Guy, Ralph Tomaselli and Chick Manware are at parade rest on an overcast Memorial Day in 1971 by the Gulf Station opposite Shepard Avenue.
On the right is Firefighter Steve Hitchcock with several other 1970-71 Hamden appointees, examining a 2 1/2" Rockwood nozzle at the Willimantic Fire School later that summer.
CLICK on any of these five photos to enlarge.
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| Willimantic Fire School - Bill Coppola, Lt. Frank Cubbellotti (in white shirt behind Coppola), Steve Hitchcock, Chick Manware, Jim Hagerty (behind Manware), Howie Hurlburt, Jr., Bob Kenney, Bill Giaquinto and John Blasius (Co. 5 vol.) |
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| Dave Howe in foreground; looks like Bernie Early at far right. |
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| Bernie Early on the double line, and Ralph Tomaselli in foreground |
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| No SCBAs in those days! |
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70 Years Ago
Future Batt. Chief & Classmates Witness Fire Behind School
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| Newspaper article courtesy of the Strain family and the Hamden Historical Society |
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1966 Demo at Bear Path
Joe Rahl and Dick Carney Wow the Kiddies
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| August 4, 1966 - This news photo was captioned, "Headquarters firemen Joseph Rahl and Richard Carney demonstrate 'resuscitation' to playground youngsters at Bear Path School with Cynthia Silvestri, far right, recreation instructor. Billie Ford, 7, is the 'victim.'" Rescue 2, a 1960 International Travel-al, is in the background. (Photo by I.A. Sneiderman) |
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| CLICK on the photo to enlarge (REALLY enlarge) for a closer look at how it was back then. |
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Memorial Town Hall is just about the only recognizable structure in this late-1940s aerial photo of Hamden center. The buildings at the northeast corner of Whitney and Dixwell burned down 71 years ago this week (CLICK February 18, 1941 – Malavolti Building, Whitney and Dixwell). The Brown Stone House Restaurant would not be built on that site until 1949.
Grace Episcopal Church, immediately west of the town hall, was moved to its present location across Dixwell Avenue in September 1966. The town's WWII honor roll can be seen on the other side of the church. The roll was removed in the early 1950s to make way for Hamden's new police headquarters and the former Miller Memorial Library, which are now scheduled for demolition.
Except for Centerville School (now the Miller Library) and Grace Episcopal Church, most of the buildings along Dixwell Avenue have been demolished to make way for newer structures.
Older Hamdenites will remember the Pepsi-Cola bottling plant and warehouse on Whitney, just north of School Street, which was demoilished in the early 1970s to make way for the mid-rise apartment building at 2405 Whitney. (Photo courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society)
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| Hamden Fire Retirees' Association |
DAILY FLAG STATUS
CLICK here!
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2012
Website is updated every Friday - Important interim updates will be posted when necessary
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Next HFRA meeting is at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10th at the Elks!
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The Local 2687 Annual Dinner will be held Saturday, March 24th, from 7-midnight, at the Laurel View C.C.
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Arthur Norman, HFD's First Retiree
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| From the May 21, 1953 edition of The Hamden Chronicle (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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| Our 1st Retiree! |
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There are Department members still on the job today who participated in the honor guard for the Department's first retiree, Firefighter Art Norman, who died in March of 1985, four days shy of his 94th birthday.
Art had been a volunteer firefighter with the Highwood company before joining the recently organized Hamden Fire Department on November 1, 1926. With over 26 years on the job, he was the first fulltime Hamden firefighter to retire under the pension plan enacted in 1949.
Art's brother, Julius, and nephew, Russ, were also Hamden firefighters. Julius served on the Department from 1931 until his retirement in 1958. He died in 1995 at the age of 102. Art's nephew, Russ Norman, who was the son of Julius Norman, served the longest. Appointed December 5, 1947, Russ retired on December 14, 1979 and died in March 2006.
Arthur Norman's vacancy on the Department roster was filled by the appointment of Firefighter Joseph McDermott, who was born only a few weeks before Norman's appointment. Joe, who is a member of the HFRA, went on to serve 38 years with the Department before retiring in 1991 as the battalion chief in charge of Platoon 2.
Posted 2/24/12
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| This remarkable 1943 photo by Don Steele was scanned from a 35mm slide of Hamden's 1941 Diamond-T ladder truck as it passed by the town hall on Dixwell Avenue. This is the oldest color photograph posted thus far. (Courtesy of the Hamden Historical Society) |
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| Photo by Russ Loller |
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Volunteer Co. 5 alumnus, Russ Loller, emailed this photo of Firefighters Bob "Whitey" Williams and Ed Doiron, taken at Station 5, right after Ed was transferred there to replace newly-retired Mario "Bucky" Serafino. (The work shirts are dark blue with no shoulder patches, which dates this photo at around 1973 - early '74 at the latest.) Whitey was either surprised by the camera, or just mugging it up for the photographer.
Whitey was on Platoon 1 and Ed was on Platoon 2. Since there was virtually no OT at the time, this photo was most likely snapped during the change of shift, when the 2nd was coming off nights and the 1st was starting its three days.
Notice the Gamewell telegraph take-up reel at the front of the desk and the fresh roll of ticker tape for the Gamewell tape register in the desk drawer.
On October 6, 1970, Whitey was a member of the first two-man crew assigned to Station 5 on the first day of the new 42-hour workweek. Ff. Frank Kafka was the other member of the crew.
Whitey Williams, as he was known to everyone, was on the department from September 1950 until his retirement in the late 1970s. He passed away on December 5, 1990.
Posted 2/24/12
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| February 19, 2012 - HFD Mountain Rescue Team |
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