So seeing that most people do not realize that their local fire department is most likely a volunteer department, I thought I would give some info on my department and it's members. The Putnam Fire Department was originally established in 1875. During the earlier years, there were two stations in town, the headquarters, was formerly located at Union Square in downtown Putnam, located somewhere near where Putnam Savings and Someplace Special is. This station housed the Eagle Hose Co.#1, and Hook and Ladder Co.#1. The other station was located on Smith St. in the north end of town, in the area of Smith and Cleveland St., which housed Motor Hose Co.#2. Apparently, from stories I've heard from older members and retirees, these two stations did not necessarily get along. In 1966, the current station was built on Church St. and the companies were housed together. Back during these days, the company members had to belong to a local organization(i.e. V.F.W., American Legion, Rod & Gun club), and if you wanted to join, you pretty much had to be a member of one of these, and to get accepted, you had to be voted in by the company members, not the chief. This is quite different from when I first joined. I just had to fill out an application, have a background check done, and attend a brief interview before I was placed on 6 months probation, before being accepted as a permanent member. Although we came close to being fully staffed a few and select times, we have always been below full staffing, until recently after 9/11 and two major gas explosions in town. We are now up to full staff minus 1 lieutenant, and there is a waiting list. That just so happens to be my lieutenant spot that is open, which I'm hoping a short while, an eligible candidate will be promoted from driver/operator to lieutenant, and then we will have 1 spot open for a new member.
In the 1980's, there was also two other companies added to the department, which were the Rescue Company, and Hose Co.#3, which was a company of Junior members that were under 18. Over the years, the interest by high school students had dropped, so they disbanded Co.#3, and reduce the department to 4 companies, with 11 spots each, and two student slots per company. Currently, there is Hose Co.#1, Hose Co.#2, Ladder Co., and Rescue Co. The command chain is currently this; Chief of Department, 3 Assistant Chiefs, a Dept. Engineer being in charge of Driver training, holding the rank of Captain, and a Safety Officer holding the rank of Captain. Now each of the four companies have their own Captain to run the company's every day operations, i.e. meetings, training, work details, and truck maintenance. To assist the Captains, each company has a lieutenant. During each month, there is a department training where all members train together as a dept., a drivers meeting where the Engineer meets and trains with all of the drivers throughout the department, an officer's meeting where department issues are discussed and voted on between officers, to be brought back to the company meetings, and company trainings. Although the department operates at the company level for meetings, trainings, and work details, i.e. truck cleanings for parades, hose washing, etc., during calls, the trucks get filled as people come in. For example, usually Engine 1 is the first truck out for most types of calls, and is cared for by Co.#1, but for a call there could be a Ladder Co. driver, Rescue Co. captain in the officer's seat, and any combination of 4 spots in the back, depending on who got to the station first and got dressed quicker. However, we always try and make sure there is at least 1 officer on each truck going out the door.
Currently, we have 6 trucks, Ladder Co. is responsible for the care/maintenance of Ladder 1, Rescue Co. has Rescue 4, Hose. Co.1 has Engine 1 and 3, and Co.2 has Engine 2 and 4. All that means is that my company is responsible to clean, restock, and have ready-to-roll Engine 2 and Engine 4, but if a call comes in, you bet I want to be in the officer's seat of Engine 1, if not, I'll find the next available seat on Engine 1, or if there is a lot of firefighters showing up to the station quickly, I'll grab the next officer's seat in the Ladder. We are lucky enough to have a public water supply, those yellow funny looking things popping out of the sidewalk every few 500 ft. or so, and our district is rather compact in an approximate 1 square mile, so we do not have tanker trucks or what have you. I would say approximately 90% of our district has hydrants, so our engines are designed to be an attack engine with only 750 gallons of water in the tank. We do not have Engine-tankers, called ET's or Tanker trucks, and we rarely draft water holes, because we have hydrants that can feed up to 100-110 gallons per minute. Therefore, we rarely get called mutual aid to some of the surrounding towns, unless it is something big, because they need "water" or tankers to either do a tanker shuttle or hit a drafting hole, pond, stream, lake, etc., which our trucks are not designed for. Now, that other 10% of our district, is West Putnam, where other than Route 44 past Day Kimball Hospital, we have no hydrants. NOT GOOD. If we get toned out for a possible fire in that area, if there is any indication from dispatch that this might be something, or the Chief or a Captain that lives out in that section of town sees a header of smoke, right away, we are calling for mutual aid tankers from East Putnam, Pomfret, and Woodstock. These are the guys that know what to do with limited water, have trucks that are designed to draft and to shuttle water, know how to set up a good tanker shuttle, and have the water that we want and don't have, and lets face it, we are used to having all the water we want with hydrants. On the other hand, we tend to be more of an aggressive fire department, whereas, rural departments have issues with limited water supply, when we have a fire in the public water supplied area, we do not have to worry about water supply, just tying the hydrants. Our in-town response time is low due to the fact that most of us live in the Special Services district, again only approx. 1 square mile, so we are close to the firehouse, and we do not call mutual aid at a majority of our fires, unless a chief officer arrives and determines it's a pretty big fire, and they will call for mutual aid. We do not respond to medicals unless there is entrapment or some need of specialized rescue, Putnam EMS, which is a seperate entity, takes in the medicals, and we do not keep our gear in our cars, all gear with the exception of the chiefs are kept at the firehouse. Everyone lives relatively close to the station, and our reasoning is that the equipment is on the trucks, and the members need to fill those trucks to respond and to do the appropriate tasks, we do not need personal vehicles cluttering up the small side streets of Putnam trying to get the trucks through, etc.
So now that I've brushed over our chain of command, our apparatus, and some of our department history, I thought I'd let you know who makes up our department. Out of the 50 current members there are:
5 People that work in maintenance work in some way
4 Production workers, i.e. Staples Distribution, Lowe's Distribution
4 Army National Guard members, 4 full-time employees at armories, 1 other member
3 Machinist/Tool & Die or Injection Molding
3 Electricians
3 Dept. of Public Works employees
2 Water Dept. employees
2 Truck drivers
2 General contractors
2 Construction laborers
2 full time emergency dispatchers for different agencies
2 part time emergency dispatchers for the town
1 Salesman
1 Civil engineer
1 UPS driver
1 Sheriff's officer
1 Auto mechanic
1 Financial specialist
1 Cardiac nurse
1 Bus driver
1 Professional photographer
1 Putnam housing dept. employee
1 Retiree
1 Unemployed
Out of these members, there are 6 college students, 3 EMT's, and 2 MRT's. I just hope this shed some light to those out there that do not realize that their emergency services may be volunteer. We have jobs just like everyone else, we just choose to spend our free time, hot dinners, holidays with the family, and warm beds at night, out there serving the community, practically free of charge(minus the budget).
In the 1980's, there was also two other companies added to the department, which were the Rescue Company, and Hose Co.#3, which was a company of Junior members that were under 18. Over the years, the interest by high school students had dropped, so they disbanded Co.#3, and reduce the department to 4 companies, with 11 spots each, and two student slots per company. Currently, there is Hose Co.#1, Hose Co.#2, Ladder Co., and Rescue Co. The command chain is currently this; Chief of Department, 3 Assistant Chiefs, a Dept. Engineer being in charge of Driver training, holding the rank of Captain, and a Safety Officer holding the rank of Captain. Now each of the four companies have their own Captain to run the company's every day operations, i.e. meetings, training, work details, and truck maintenance. To assist the Captains, each company has a lieutenant. During each month, there is a department training where all members train together as a dept., a drivers meeting where the Engineer meets and trains with all of the drivers throughout the department, an officer's meeting where department issues are discussed and voted on between officers, to be brought back to the company meetings, and company trainings. Although the department operates at the company level for meetings, trainings, and work details, i.e. truck cleanings for parades, hose washing, etc., during calls, the trucks get filled as people come in. For example, usually Engine 1 is the first truck out for most types of calls, and is cared for by Co.#1, but for a call there could be a Ladder Co. driver, Rescue Co. captain in the officer's seat, and any combination of 4 spots in the back, depending on who got to the station first and got dressed quicker. However, we always try and make sure there is at least 1 officer on each truck going out the door.
Currently, we have 6 trucks, Ladder Co. is responsible for the care/maintenance of Ladder 1, Rescue Co. has Rescue 4, Hose. Co.1 has Engine 1 and 3, and Co.2 has Engine 2 and 4. All that means is that my company is responsible to clean, restock, and have ready-to-roll Engine 2 and Engine 4, but if a call comes in, you bet I want to be in the officer's seat of Engine 1, if not, I'll find the next available seat on Engine 1, or if there is a lot of firefighters showing up to the station quickly, I'll grab the next officer's seat in the Ladder. We are lucky enough to have a public water supply, those yellow funny looking things popping out of the sidewalk every few 500 ft. or so, and our district is rather compact in an approximate 1 square mile, so we do not have tanker trucks or what have you. I would say approximately 90% of our district has hydrants, so our engines are designed to be an attack engine with only 750 gallons of water in the tank. We do not have Engine-tankers, called ET's or Tanker trucks, and we rarely draft water holes, because we have hydrants that can feed up to 100-110 gallons per minute. Therefore, we rarely get called mutual aid to some of the surrounding towns, unless it is something big, because they need "water" or tankers to either do a tanker shuttle or hit a drafting hole, pond, stream, lake, etc., which our trucks are not designed for. Now, that other 10% of our district, is West Putnam, where other than Route 44 past Day Kimball Hospital, we have no hydrants. NOT GOOD. If we get toned out for a possible fire in that area, if there is any indication from dispatch that this might be something, or the Chief or a Captain that lives out in that section of town sees a header of smoke, right away, we are calling for mutual aid tankers from East Putnam, Pomfret, and Woodstock. These are the guys that know what to do with limited water, have trucks that are designed to draft and to shuttle water, know how to set up a good tanker shuttle, and have the water that we want and don't have, and lets face it, we are used to having all the water we want with hydrants. On the other hand, we tend to be more of an aggressive fire department, whereas, rural departments have issues with limited water supply, when we have a fire in the public water supplied area, we do not have to worry about water supply, just tying the hydrants. Our in-town response time is low due to the fact that most of us live in the Special Services district, again only approx. 1 square mile, so we are close to the firehouse, and we do not call mutual aid at a majority of our fires, unless a chief officer arrives and determines it's a pretty big fire, and they will call for mutual aid. We do not respond to medicals unless there is entrapment or some need of specialized rescue, Putnam EMS, which is a seperate entity, takes in the medicals, and we do not keep our gear in our cars, all gear with the exception of the chiefs are kept at the firehouse. Everyone lives relatively close to the station, and our reasoning is that the equipment is on the trucks, and the members need to fill those trucks to respond and to do the appropriate tasks, we do not need personal vehicles cluttering up the small side streets of Putnam trying to get the trucks through, etc.
So now that I've brushed over our chain of command, our apparatus, and some of our department history, I thought I'd let you know who makes up our department. Out of the 50 current members there are:
5 People that work in maintenance work in some way
4 Production workers, i.e. Staples Distribution, Lowe's Distribution
4 Army National Guard members, 4 full-time employees at armories, 1 other member
3 Machinist/Tool & Die or Injection Molding
3 Electricians
3 Dept. of Public Works employees
2 Water Dept. employees
2 Truck drivers
2 General contractors
2 Construction laborers
2 full time emergency dispatchers for different agencies
2 part time emergency dispatchers for the town
1 Salesman
1 Civil engineer
1 UPS driver
1 Sheriff's officer
1 Auto mechanic
1 Financial specialist
1 Cardiac nurse
1 Bus driver
1 Professional photographer
1 Putnam housing dept. employee
1 Retiree
1 Unemployed
Out of these members, there are 6 college students, 3 EMT's, and 2 MRT's. I just hope this shed some light to those out there that do not realize that their emergency services may be volunteer. We have jobs just like everyone else, we just choose to spend our free time, hot dinners, holidays with the family, and warm beds at night, out there serving the community, practically free of charge(minus the budget).
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