An early history of the Westport Fire Department

An early history of the Westport Fire Department.

EverythingWestport.com

Tuesday, June 18, 2008

“Before the first fire house in 1928, Westporters used the bucket brigade’” Calvin “Cal” Hopkinson chuckled. “But then a group of Westport volunteer firefighters put up a fire station in Central Village on a lot that old Charlie Wood leased to the town for as long as the land was used for fire prevention purposes,” Cal said.

That purpose may be coming to end as the Town of Westport voted to finance a new South End Fire Station Tuesday, June 17 for a projected cost not to exceed $7 million dollars. It had been a long road, and the Fire Department had been turned back many times.

View high-quality digital photos now! 15 photos | Broadband/DSL speed |

Early Fire Fighting Apparatus

In 1927, then Assessor Irving C. Hammond proposed, and Town Meeting accepted, that on November 1927 “the voters of the Town of Westport accept as a gift such firefighting apparatus and equipment as they may deem necessary for the best interest of the town, and the selectmen are also authorized and instructed to dispose of apparatus at any time they may deem advisable in order to improve such equipment, the same being returned to its donor.”

It’s difficult to know whether it was politics or just tight pockets that drove the Westport Volunteer Fire Company to build their own fire station. But that they did, and in 1928 (started in 1927) the two-bay, Central Village Fire Station No. 1 was completed. The Westport Volunteer Fire Company was “a duly organized association for the protection of fire fighting property that it had financed from its own treasury.” They were now “to man and handle the said apparatus as at present.” The right-most two bays seen in today’s photos were built in 1978 by Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School students with monies from donations and fundraisers, and at no cost to the town.

The Westport Fire Department was organized March 14, 1928. The personnel consisted of a Chief, a First Assistant Engineer, a Second Assistant Engineer, a Deputy Chief, one Captain, one Lieutenant, and eighteen men, all serving entirely without compensation. That year they responded to 37 fires: 14 buildings, 6 chimneys, 5 grass, 3 brush, 3 automobiles, 1 cotton, 1 false alarm, and 4 miscellaneous. There were 49 alarms in 1929. It seems false alarms have been around since the dawn of the Westport Fire Department!

Prior to the new south end fire station (as it has come to be known) Westport did have some fire fighting equipment, most of it hand-made. Pictured above is a hand-pulled, 40-gallon, soda/acid fire extinguisher manufactured by the O. J. Childs Company in Utica, NY (pictured above, second from left) that was used by early Westport firefighters. This extinguisher used the reaction between 22 pounds of sodium bicarbonate solution and sulfuric acid to create pressure (250 psi) and expel water onto a fire. When fire fighters reached the fire (probably quite tired!) they would insert a small metal canister of the two separated compounds into the 40 gallon water tank, pull a lever to mix them and create the necessary pressure, and hopefully put out the fire, although 40 gallons doesn’t seem like a lot of water to put out a large fire!

In 1928, town records show the purchase of their first fire truck – a beautiful Maxim manufactured by the Maxim Motor Company in Middleboro, Massachusetts (pictured above, second from right). “She was a beauty,” Calvin said. “But boy, was she expensive, almost $8000!” In contrast, the recent ladder truck obtained by the town with assistance from Homeland Security cost about $605,000. A town without public water, Westport was forced to invest in “pumpers” that could carry their own water to the fires. Water would be pumped from the river or local streams through the use of “fire holes” or “dry hydrants” (non-pressurized hydrants) like the one recently put into place at Adamsville Pond during the recent dredging. The Maxim could carry about 245 gallons.

The new Fire Chief Irving C. Hammond reports in 1928 the seriousness of water shortages, and the need for all town residents to determine their access to water, in or near their home, and the best way to get to it. If none, he recommended a small cistern be built as “even a small cistern is much more effective than a well.”

The 1929 Westport annual report tells of a new apparatus added in the form of “a Chevrolet chassis with three water tanks with a capacity of 95 gallons each, a total of 285 gallons. The Chief hoped that in 1930 money could be appropriated “to enable us install a small cheap pump on this piece to facilitate a quick refill.” This equipment was probably handmade. The addition of a “small cheap pump” would allow then fire fighters to use the various water holes (pictured below left) in Westport for “quick refills”.

In 1932 the town bought its second fire truck, a monster pumper, custom built by Mack, and equipped with a 1000 gallon water tank, at a cost to the town of $8000 (pictured upper right). “Mack wouldn’t guarantee the carriage, laughed Calvin. “They said the tank would be too heavy. Fortunately, their fears weren’t justified.” The sturdily-built Mack remains to this day rusting in an open Westport field.

In 1941 the town bought a Buffalo stationary pump. (pictured at the bottom of this article.)

“I was a volunteer fire fighter in 1943, along with Cukie Macomber, my senior year in High School Calvin said. “When a call came in, we were excused from class, and ran outside the school to wait for the truck to pick us up if it were going by!”

Politics and Posturing

In the early 1940’s, a group of volunteers organized the North End Fire Association and built a fire station at Greenwood Park on Route 6. The property was rented from a call fire fighter, and the town provided a fire truck. However, the station would never be used as Fire Chief Lynwood Potter refused to authorize the station. The fire truck was moved to, and subsequently stored in a private garage owned by Rene Routhier, a “good mechanic”. The fire truck, and a second one added later, operated out of that location until 1970.

t12 t13 t14

Left to right: (1) Front section of this building was built as a fire station by the North End Fire Association in the early 1940’s. It was never used. (2) Front view of the fire station building owned by Rene Routhier, and rented by the town until 1970. Rent in 1970 was $600 per year. (3) Side view of the North End Fire Station showing masonry construction.

The town bought a new truck for Central Station in 1951.

The Head of Westport Fire Association (Calvin Hopkinson is the current President) built a new, two-bay fire station at 98 Reed Road in 1950 on land donated by Dorothy Hopkinson’s father. The station opened with an old Autocar fire truck provided by the town. “The town bought another fire truck in the early 50’s, a new Maxim for about $25,000, for the Route 6 private garage” recalls Calvin. “They sent the old Mack to the new Head Station.”

In 1970 the town built the Briggs Road facility on town-owned land. Briggs Road Fire Station was the first town-built, town-owned fire station. Its completion caused the private garage on Route 6 to be closed. Meanwhile, the Head Station continued to operate. However, the town moved three permanent firefighters from the Head Station to Briggs Road sometime thereafter to man the town’s first ambulance. With the shortage of manpower, the Head Station was finally retired (pictured below right).

t10

Sidenote: After the war it appears that the Federal government’s Civil Defense Authority stored a pump trailer on the bottom floor of the old Head Garage on Old County Road. It was stored there free of charge, while Andrew Sherman built boats on the second floor. Later it was moved to Dorothy Hopkinson’s father’s garage.

Epilogue:

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Firefighter and fire department historian Paul Duhon announced that the Westport Fire Department has re-acquired the second full service fire engine purchased by the town in 1932, a Mack custom-built pumper. “It’s in kind of rough shape,” Mr. Duhon said. The 1000 gallon capacity tanker truck has been sitting in a Westport field for the last 45 years, having been retired from service in 1963. “Mack wouldn’t guarantee the carriage, laughed Calvin Hopkinson, President of the Head of Westport Fire Association. “They said the tank would be too heavy. Fortunately, their fears weren’t justified.”

Mr. Duhon explained the department’s goal is to “try and find money to restore the truck.” Mack Trucks, Inc. recently provided the fire department with the original plans for the truck. That’s a big step in the right direction said Mr. Duhon.

The Westport Volunteer Fire Company already has possession of the fully-restored, first fire engine purchased by the town in 1928 – a Maxim manufactured by the Maxim Motor Company in Middleboro, Massachusetts.

Mr. Duhon said they are hopeful the Mack can be restored through grant money, private donations, or historical groups.

- - - - - - End - - - - - -