http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-soundbeachoct03,0,7718587.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines
By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer
October 3, 2004
A hundred years ago, Old Greenwich residents tired of relying on the faraway central Greenwich fire station joined together to start a new fire department to serve the eastern side of town. The Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department was born.
"They used horses in those days and that was a long run from downtown on Greenwich Avenue," said former Sound Beach Chief Paul Palmer, a member of the department since 1947 and grandson of George Nelson Palmer, one of its founders. "For fire protection on the east side of town, we were it."
This year marks the centennial of the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Department, which from the beginning has been a self-supporting unit, buying much of its own equipment with fund-raising and community donations, members said. In the past two decades the department has continued its tradition of self-sufficiency and evolved into the town's rescue company, acquiring a reputation statewide for state-of-the-art life-saving techniques and equipment, Sound Beach Chief Paul Chiappetta said.
"We were pretty much in on the ground floor with technical rescue when a lot of departments were still getting into vehicle extrication tools," Chiappetta said. "It was an evolutionary step and it set the tone for a lot of departments in the area."
The company holds weekly drills in either routine firefighting and specialized rescue training, Chiappetta said. Yesterday, the department celebrated its centennial with a parade that included fire departments from Connecticut, Westchester County and Long Island, N.Y., as well as an early morning family bike ride and other events.
Jim Daine, a firefighter and department president, said through the years the department has flourished with the financial support of the Old Greenwich and Riverside communities.
"Thanks to the generous support of the community, we are able to train at a higher level," Daine said.
The department was created on April 29, 1904, at a community meeting at the School House, with members adopting the name the Sound Beach Hose Company No. 1. Old Greenwich was then known as Sound Beach.
A year later, the department bought a horse-drawn hose cart that carried a 30-foot ladder, two soda acid hand-extinguishers, 80 feet of hose and up to six people. The Sound Beach School District ceded a piece of land to the company, and the town appropriated $2,000 to build a firehouse on Sound Beach Avenue. The current firehouse, built in 1962, is at the same location.
By 1914, the company was fighting fires in Riverside and purchased its first motorized truck to cover its expanding responsibilities, carrying 1,500 feet of hose and 145 gallons of chemicals, according to the department's 50th anniversary brochure.
Throughout its early history, the department was regarded as a godsend for those it served, a self-supporting entity which used funds raised from an annual carnival to provide fire protection from the Mianus River to the Stamford town line, according to a June 12, 1935, feature in the Greenwich Daily News Graphic, the predecessor of the Greenwich Time.
The article credits the department with preserving $5 million in property between 1925 and 1935.
"A fire department can save its cost twenty times over or it can be just about the most expensive toy on the market. . .," the article states about the department. ". . . Old Greenwich at negligible cost to taxpayers is receiving fire protection of the highest order."
Since 1923, the department has sponsored and organized an annual Memorial Day parade up Sound Beach Avenue, which includes local and state fire departments along with local youth athletic teams.
"It's become a huge day for us and a labor of love to pull together," Chiappetta said.
Former Sound Beach Chief John Moody, 90, recalled the carnival as an annual event drawing people from around the region. The annual carnival would occupy the area on Sound Beach Avenue currently filled by municipal parking and a row of stores, Moody remembered.
"It was a really big deal," he said. "People came from all different states."
During the Great Depression, the department's Relief Committee discreetly provided food and coal to families in need, Moody said.
Palmer, grand marshal of yesterday's centennial parade, said when he joined the department in 1947 that the membership of 60 active firefighters was comprised mostly of electricians, carpenters, and other workmen employed locally.
"We wanted a quick response during the day," Palmer said.
During that era Greenwich was a sleepier place, Palmer said, and Old Greenwich, to a large extent, was the summer home of vacationing urbanites. The department was the center of much of the social life for firefighters, who would throw parties at the station, play pool, and just hang out, he added.
"It was the thing to do in town," Palmer said. "In those days, we didn't all have cars. It was a great place to go and to be."
In addition to fire calls and other emergencies, during heavy rainstorms members of the department would ferry flood-bound residents by rowboat out of the Shorelands neighborhood and other low-lying areas to take shelter at the fire station, Palmer recalled.
"We didn't have such a storm warning system like we do today," Palmer said.
The increased cost of living in town during the 1970s and 1980s, and the loss of several local companies such as Electrolux challenged volunteer fire companies townwide with reduced ranks as members left town, Chiappetta said. The town adopted incentives to attract and retain firefighters, such as a $5 reimbursement per emergency call and property tax credits, he said.
"There was a need to help people who wanted to do it to stay in it because people have to work so hard to stay in this community," Chiappetta said.
Over the past two decades, the department has increasingly made specialized rescue techniques its forte, said Fred Brooks, a Sound Beach firefighter since 1983 who now serves as department vice president.
When Brooks joined the company, the department had one metal-cutting tool for extricating passengers from wrecked cars, he recalled.
"We're trained to a much higher level," said Brooks, a telecommunication consultant who works in town. "We used to have a drill once a month, then twice a month, and now every week in addition to regular firefighter training."
Tim Peck, the department's training officer, said Sound Beach's 30 active firefighters are certified to National Fire Protection Association standards in life-saving disciplines, including confined space, trench, rope, dive, and building collapse rescue as well as hazmat training.
"What keeps it interesting is teaching new firefighters and keeping on top of new things," Peck said. "There is nothing we do that is overly difficult, but you have to commit to doing it."
Along with the techniques, the department's equipment has evolved as well, Chiappetta said.
Aboard Rescue 5's engines, the department carries a collection of breakers, chippers and cutters specially designed for concrete which could be used in the event of a building collapse, he said.
Other high-tech equipment includes various hydraulic systems with a total lifting capacity of 200 tons, Chiappetta said, which can be used for lifting heavy equipment and other objects that roll over.
Chiappetta said that, following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the department's focus on rescue training has brought added recognition, as eight members of the department were chosen to be part of the recently created Connecticut Department of Homeland Security's Connecticut Task Force 1, a disaster and terrorism response team modeled after federal Urban Search and Rescue teams.
"I'd like to see us continue to train in technical rescue and improve our skills," Chiappetta said. "I think we're very capable, but the challenge is to always improve."
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