Published on 12/31/2007 in TheDay.com
By Karin Crompton

David Jewett, right, chief of the Old Lyme Fire Department, talks with his father, Ellis Jewett, a former chief of the department.

Editor's Note: This is the last in a series of stories about volunteers in our communities.

Old Lyme-- Volunteering is a choice, right? Or is it a birthright? Or an inheritance?

Consider the Jewett family.

In 1923, Ellis Devitt and Carleton Jewett were two of the charter members of the Old Lyme Fire Department. Ellis was named fire chief and Carleton was an assistant chief.

The two men were Ellis Jewett's grandfathers, and they often brought him to the firehouse.

Eighty-four years later, the five members of the Jewett family — Ellis and his wife, Mary Ellen, sons David and James, and daughter Ann Marie — are all volunteers with the department.

Ellis is a former fire chief and current secretary. Mary Ellen and Ann Marie are volunteers with the auxiliary. James is a former chief. David is the current chief.

“In small towns, it's probably easier because it's kind of handed down,” Ellis said one night at the firehouse on Lyme Street. “You grow up with it.”

They have some trouble, as many volunteers often do, explaining why they do it.

“I don't know why,” said Ellis, who joined when he was a teenager. “Just, it was an interesting thing to do. My father was in it, my grandfather was in it, so I followed along.”

David joined the department as a junior firefighter when he was 15. He, too, struggles to explain why he joined. He just did.

They point out that theirs is not the only family in town that's fully immersed in the department: there are fathers and sons, cousins, and nephews in the department of about 48 active volunteers.

They insist that they're nothing special, especially in a small town.

“Probably in smaller towns, people are used to getting up in the middle of dinner and going to calls, and getting up in the middle of the night and going to calls. It's kind of in your nature, I guess,” David Jewett said.

The auxiliary, of which Mary Ellen and Ann Marie are a part, raises money and puts on dinners for the department. They made dinner for a recent members-only Christmas party and do the same for steak dinners and other events throughout the year.

They help out during calls, sometimes getting pizza during big fires or helping back at the station.

•••••

In Old Lyme, the fire department responded to about 320 calls last year, according to David. The department responds to all the calls on the stretch of Interstate 95 between exits 70 and 71, and anything on the Old Lyme side of the Baldwin Bridge.

The state and federal requirements get tougher every year, Ellis said, and the training requirements get more extensive.

“I think it's the idealistic thing, like doing something for your community,” Ellis said. “It's a great bunch of people to hang around with. The camaraderie is great, so you get a lot of friends. And it's challenging; there's quite a lot of challenge, there are things you have to face very quickly and make some quick decisions.”

When asked how often the whole family responds to a call, Ellis was saying, “quite often” when David interrupted.

“Well, we're all a big family, so we're all there,” he said of the department. Ellis nodded.

“Everybody is equal when it comes to volunteering and doing their job,” he said. “That's a point that needs to be made: it's not just us. There's a lot of other people.”

But Bridget Yuknat, a long-time family friend, said the family has a staying power that separates them from ordinary volunteers.

“They have been so steadfast where everyone else has had their ups and downs,” Yuknat said. “I've been a member 28, 29 years, and they're always there.”

Yuknat said she was the first girl to join the fire department, signing up as a junior member when she was 15. Ellis was the chief, she said, and she used to pick up David and James, one under each arm.

She describes the family as “top notch.”

“The entire family, you could call at 3 in the morning and say, 'Hey, my car is stuck,' and they'd come out and help you,” she said. “Luckily for the town of Old Lyme, they put their energies to the fire department.”