Branford- “I'm not going to miss getting up in the middle of the night,” says retiring Assistant Chief Robert Andrew of the Branford Fire Department. He laughs as he says this and it belies how dedicated he remains to the town and the men and women with whom he works.
Impending retirement or not, Bob's emergency scanner squawks and chirps periodically in the background as he talks. The residents he serves with, and for, never far from his mind.
Bob has been a firefighter since 1963.
“It was all-volunteer back then,” says Bob. Very few shoreline towns had paid firefighter positions, according to Bob. In fact, Branford hired its first paid firefighters that same year.
Bob served in Guilford as a volunteer and a paid firefighter until he took on the Branford job in 1995. Bob was with the department for only a year when the Branford Fire Department had its darkest day.
On Thanksgiving evening 1996, Firefighter Eddie Ramos lost his life in the now infamous Floors 'N' More fire. Several other members of the department narrowly escaped the terrible blaze. Bob is obviously moved by the mention of Ramos's name.
“I talked to him the day before...” Bob says trailing off, lost in the memory. “If it wasn't for his death I wouldn't have gotten my job. I got my job because of him--after that fire was when Branford actually created that job. It's sad to think it took the life of a firefighter for the town to actually fund that position.”
After the tragedy, Branford instituted new training procedures and requirements, and Bob was given the position of assistant chief and training officer. Bob has taught at the Connecticut Fire Academy for many years and has passed his knowledge onto generations of firefighters.
According to Bob, there are concerns about the future of volunteers in fire departments across the country. New requirements simply make casual volunteering a thing of the past.
Bob explains, “Years ago, you could put as much discretionary time into the department as you wished. Basically you could volunteer and go home or hang around. But there is so much mandatory training required today it's no longer discretionary, everything is mandatory. For a career guy, there are a lot of demands, but for volunteers it is a big effect.”
According to Bob, the field is changing. Where once fire departments were called to battle blazes, they now routinely go out on far more medical calls than fires. Regardless of the call, Bob will miss the camaraderie around the firehouse.
“A firehouse is not sacred, I'll just say that,” Bob says with a hearty laugh. “Firefighters seem to find any way to pull practical jokes. Anytime someone got their picture in the paper, forget it, if your picture got published it would come back to haunt you, especially with computers. There was some very funny stuff.”
Bob laughs again, seeming to know that the picture accompanying this article will somehow be transformed into the butt of a joke back at the house. “The price of entertainment is cheap around a firehouse,” he says.
Bob still plans to pass on his experience and training as an instructor at the Fire Academy, the premiere training facility in the state, but he says he mainly just wants to take it easy and do a little golfing.
Bob says, “I suppose my ears will perk whenever the siren go off, if it's something serious I'll still go. I've kept my deputy fire marshal status in town. But I would like to say how much I enjoyed the job. I appreciate everything Branford did for me, and I hope I made some kind of contribution along the way.”