All three Darien volunteer fire departments participated in a statewide day for open houses on Saturday in order to attract volunteers. Kids were also welcome.
Not a large number came to the events, held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on a cool, drizzly day when many had beat it out of town for the April school break. Darien Fire Department, with passers-by spotting the open house downtown, had a location advantage over the other two departments and attracted about 100 visitors.
There were perhaps a dozen families at the Noroton Fire Department and “a handful” at the Noroton Heights Fire Department, organizers said.
The kids who came loved it, and adults had a chance to learn about what volunteers did, whether or not the visitors had the idea of joining up themselves. Darien’s departments, although they each have dozens of active members, are always looking for volunteers and can always use them.
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Thomas O'Brien, age 4, got a plastic firefighter's hat at the Darien Fire Department station downtown. He liked the pencils, too. And the fire trucks. And, it seemed, everything about the event.
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"We were driving by," said Kevin O'Brien (shown here with his son, Thomas, and daughter, Emma), so they decided to stop in at the open house.
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A statewide fire department association asked local departments to have open houses last Saturday, so all three Darien departments were open, said Darien Fire Chief Victor Pensiero, shown here with his daughters, Samantha, 15, and Alexis, 10.
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Perhaps 100 visitors came to Darien Fire Department for the open house, Pensiero said.
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Ready-to-grab at the Darien Fire Department
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Members of the Noroton Fire Department in front of one of the engines. Assistant Fire Chief Brendan Keane (second from left) said about a dozen families visited the open house that cold, rainy Saturday.
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The Noroton Fire Department has a fire rescue boat, unique among Darien's three fire departments. On Saturday it happened to be out of the water for maintenance, but it was going back in soon.
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In a Noroton Fire Department volunteer's first year, attendance at 24 drills is mandatory. They're held every Friday night and every Sunday morning, Keane said. The department has 25 to 30 active members and can always use more, he said.
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Pete Ham, 77, recalls his days as a young volunteer firefighter when his mother would get the alert with a phone call, and then she was supposed to call three others. In addition, horns would blast a certain pattern that firefighters could look up in a book to find out what kind of situation they were being alerted to and where in town. "It was actually a very effective system," he said. Nowadays, firefighters get calls and texts to their cell phones.
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The upstairs floor of the Noroton Fire Department has plenty of space not only for the firefighters to meet — it can also be used for civilians in emergencies like Hurricane Irene, when electricity is out elsewhere. Cots are stored upstairs, and there's a big kitchen, volunteer firefighter Joe Warren said. An elevator has been installed, so the elderly can get upstairs. The town tends to use the high school as its first option for a shelter, but this firehouse is available.
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More of the second floor at the Noroton Fire Department. There's quite a bit of space.
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Part of the large kitchen on the second floor at the Noroton Fire Department.
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Joe Warren has been a volunteer with the Noroton Fire Department for 51 years. We grabbed a picture of this decoration on his sweatshirt. The Irish character doesn't have any particular meaning for the department — but a lot of volunteer firefighters have been Irish Americans, he said.
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Joe Warren showed us so much at the Noroton Fire Department, that we somehow forgot to take a picture of Warren himself, but here's a file photo, and he hasn't changed much.
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Noroton Heights Fire Department Chief Shawn Murphy, with his wife, Jen, also a volunteer firefighter (the two of them have been in the department since 2002) and their daughter, Lizzie, 3 years old, a little too young to volunteer, although you can volunteer for some service as young as 16 years old.
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Each fire department in town has its own traditions (like cartoon-character decorations and axes on the Noroton Heights fire engines) and variation on training requirements. At Noroton Heights, training schedules are less formal. You can join as an active member and, as early as age 18, fight fires, but you can also volunteer in other capacities, Murphy said.
