http://www.greenwichtime.com/news/local/scn-gt-wetdown2aug08,0,3190763.story?coll=green-news-local-headlines
By Michael Dinan
Staff Writer
August 8, 2005
Brian Kelly wouldn't dream of breaking a champagne bottle across the bow of this "ship."
For the 29-year-old captain of Cos Cob Fire Police Patrol Inc., the pristine "P-2," or Patrol unit No. 2 truck, is too valuable to christen with glass.
The roughly $350,000 truck, designed to assist with fire salvage and traffic control, is also too vital to distressed town residents to risk damage.
"The Fire Police Patrol are all certified firefighters, and we do a number of different things with police and fire units," Kelly, the third generation in his family to volunteer with the patrol, said moments before jets of water christened the P-2 in front of more than 100 Greenwich residents, town officials and emergency services personnel behind the Cos Cob fire station yesterday.
The free event, billed as the "Patrol 2 Wet Down 2005,"marked the first public display of the town-purchased truck that rushes to fires, floods, and other emergencies to help protect families' personal belongings, pump out water from broken pipes, help direct traffic and clear roads during storms and otherwise assist the fire and police departments.
Yesterday, dozens of children climbed inside the truck while members of the roughly 30-member unit looked on, washing hot dogs, hamburgers, cookies and other treats down with soda and beer on a humid afternoon.
"The coolest part is the tanks of air," 4-year-old Benjamin Kennedy of Old Greenwich said from one of six back seats while his little sister Claire, 3, sat shotgun in a patrol hat and headset. "Look at all these seats. It's fun."
On the shelves behind the excited children and elsewhere on the truck lay rescue items and family heirlooms that have served as the Kelly's tools since the Police Patrol unit was established 78 years ago. Those items include a handmade "water shoot," made by Kelly's grandfather, that funnels water out of a flooded building, and a decades-old, re-chromed fire bell.
The 10-month-old truck is far better equipped than the unit's original $750 patrol truck, Kelly said, featuring forcible entry tools like picks and axes, sump-pumps, tarps, portable generators, a shop-vacuum and a chain saw that the unit used to clear a tree from a blocked roadway three nights ago.
Fire officials joined Selectmen Peter Crumbine and Penny Monahan in congratulating the Fire Police Patrol for its vital and dependable service to Greenwich. First Selectman Jim Lash was out of town, Crumbine said, but sent his best wishes.
"Those of us who have seen the patrol in action, first-hand, can really appreciate all that they've done," Monahan said, as members of the unit rolled out a massive, artistically decorated cake that included an edible likeness of the P-2 truck. The cake was donated by pastry shop Sweet Lisa's of Cos Cob, one of a handful of sponsors that included the Cos Cob Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary and Greenwich Department of Parks and Recreation.
Cos Cob resident Maureen Hays looked on as her 6-year-old son Ryan, who will enter the first grade at Cos Cob School next month, ran from one side of the truck to the other, and climbed inside.
"I think all boys at this age think that they're going to be firemen," Maureen Hays said.
Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.