http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.fireboat1jun27,0,4330264.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
June 27, 2007
NORWALK - A cast-off police boat and 18 months of work have produced the first fire boat in city history.
Eleven days before its planned debut on the night of July 3, when fireworks are planned off Calf Pasture Beach, the 24-foot Harry E. Brower was unexpectedly called into service Friday night when an abandoned house on Chimon Island was set on fire.
Fire Lt. Jon Maggio was nearing the end of his shift and heard reports of a fire on the island just before 6 p.m.
When the blaze was confirmed, Maggio, who has been working on the retired police boat with Lt. Michael Pirri, told Deputy Chief Kenneth Ehlers the craft was ready to transport men and equipment.
Ehlers gave the order and the renovated work boat was trailer-launched at Veterans Park, making five trips to the island Friday night and early Saturday morning to ferry firefighters and equipment to it.
The boat's successful first mission, called a "trial by fire" by one firefighter yesterday, was a relief for Pirri and Maggio.
"There was a lot of weight taken off of us because we were able to prove that the fire department could use a vessel to provide the same service to those on the sea that we provide on land," Pirri said.
"I felt like we achieved what we set out to do," Maggio said, adding that the boat project has had its skeptics in the department.
Having the boat enabled the fire department to get more firefighters and equipment out to the blaze, he said.
"It is nice to have a finished project," Maggio said.
Fire Chief Denis McCarthy, who acknowledged that he had doubts about the boat, praised those who worked on the renovation.
Along with Pirri and Maggio, mechanics Scott Plank and Alan DiPietro and Assistant Fire Chief Laurence Reilly should be commended, McCarthy said.
With 28 miles of developed coastline and more than one dozen islands, the lack of a fire boat has been a weakness, McCarthy said.
The boat "gives us the opportunity to manage our own resources in a way that makes sense to the fire department," he said. The boat helps reduce the burden his department puts on marine police when fires occur on the water, McCarthy said.
The project also continues a department tradition of using whatever is at hand to help the department become more responsive to the needs of the community, he said.
Mechanics have salvaged parts and equipment from various vehicles to create a hazardous materials trailer, he said. Maggio and Pirri said they named the boat Harry E. Brower for a Norwalk firefighter at the Broad River firehouse, who loved the water.
Brower, who retired in the late 1990s and died soon after, spent all of his spare time fishing on his boat, Maggio said.
Over the next week, Maggio and Pirri are planning to install a 425-gallon-per-minute pump on board the boat and mount a nozzle on its front. Other electronic items, such as a radio, chart plotter, radar and sonar, are being installed.
Since spring 2006, the boat has been painted and its twin 175-horsepower engines have been rebuilt, allowing the boat to go about 40 mph. The gas tank was replaced and minor Fiberglas repairs were made to the front of the boat and the two rear corners.
Although Maggio and Pirri wanted to get it into the water by the end of last season, performing the work took longer than expected.
Because firefighters did most of the work on the boat, Maggio figures that with the pump, nozzle and electronics installed, the fire department has just over $20,000 invested.
If the city were to buy a new fire boat of the same size and with similar features, it could cost as much as $180,000, he said.
"It was impressive for what we did it for. It was short money," Maggio said.
Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.