No Rest On Sunday

For Newtown’s Volunteers

By Andrew Gorosko

Being a volunteer fireman last Sunday seemed a lot more like a full-time job than volunteer work, as local firefighters, and other volunteer emergency service workers, responded to a streak of calls on one of the busiest days in recent memory.

The day’s work included putting out three brush fires – one on Huntingtown Road, a second fire off Eagle Rock Road in Sandy Hook Center, and a third fire on Hammertown Road, just over the town line in Monroe. High, blustery winds fanned those fires’ flames, posing problems for firemen working to quash the blazes.

As the day started about 8:30 am, three separate emergency service drills got underway.

Hawleyville and Dodgingtown firefighters joined forces on a fire drill on Glenmor Drive where they burned down a house and practiced firefighting techniques.

Newtown Hook and Ladder firefighters did a cooperative drill with Southbury firemen at the large wooden building which formerly housed The Bazaar at Heritage Village in Southbury.

Newtown Underwater Search and Rescue (NUSAR), the town’s dive team, also participated in a drill.

About 8:50 am, Newtown Hook and Ladder received an automatic fire alarm from a business at 103 South Main Street, which proved to be a false alarm.

About 10:45 am, some Sandy Hook firefighters went to the fire drill on Glenmor Drive.

Five minutes later, Botsford firemen responded to a brush fire on Huntingtown Road.

Just after 12:30 pm, firefighters received a report of a brush fire off Eagle Rock Road, a small dirt road extending off Dayton Street in Sandy Hook Center. The town received five 911 calls on that fire.

Sandy Hook, Newtown Hook and Ladder, and Botsford firemen went to the scene.

Sandy Hook Fire Chief Bill Halstead explained that a man had been cutting up an old truck with an acetylene torch. The torch’s flame ignited nearby vegetation, with the fire then spreading up a steep hillside in windy conditions. About two acres of the wooded area caught fire due to high winds, Chief Halstead said.

Sandy Hook firemen sent two firetrucks to the nearby Walnut Tree Village as a precautionary measure, Chief Halstead said. Firefighters stood by in the event the fire reached the 80-unit condominium complex.

The fire, which was whipped up the hillside by 30-mph wind gusts, got within about 600 feet of the complex, but was extinguished by firemen before it reached the condos, said Fire Marshal George Lockwood.

At 1:06 pm, the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps went to the fire. It transported two firemen to Danbury Hospital. One was treated for heat exhaustion and the other treated for smoke inhalation, Mr Lockwood said.

The fire marshal said he does not expect any charges will be filed in the accidental fire.

About 35 firemen responded to that call, Chief Halstead said.

Just after that brush fire started, at 12:37 pm, a fire alarm came in from Greenwich House at Fairfield Hills, where the Daytop substance abuse treatment program operates a rehabilitation center. Newtown Hook and Ladder and Botsford firemen responded, but it proved to be a false alarm.

At 12:54 pm, the ambulance corps went to a Dug Hill Road home from which it transported a person with a medical problem to the hospital.

At 12:59 pm, Newtown Hook and Ladder firemen responded to a fire alarm at Charter Communications on Commerce Road. It proved to be a false alarm.

While firefighters were still at the Sandy Hook brush fire, the town received a call for help from the Monroe fire department at 1:13 pm.

Monroe firemen needed mutual aid to fight a large brush fire burning in the area of Hammertown Road.

Botsford, Newtown Hook and Ladder, and Sandy Hook firemen responded to that fire. Newtown sent nine fire trucks to that fire.

 In view of so many fire trucks being sent to fight the Monroe blaze, Newtown called in a Southbury fire tanker at 2:07 pm to stand by at the Sandy Hook Firehouse as a precaution.

At 2:18 pm, Hawleyville and Dodgingtown firefighters were told to report to their firehouses on standby in the event they were needed for firefighting duty.

While the Monroe fire was underway, at 1:55 pm, Sandy Hook firefighters responded to Stonebridge Road near the Sandy Hook fire substation for a report of electrical wires sparking on a utility pole.

 At 3:54 pm, ambulance corps members went to a Still Hill Road address from which they transported a person to Danbury Hospital.

The last Newtown firefighters who were still at the Monroe brush fire returned to the Newtown Hook and Ladder firehouse at about 5 pm.

At 5:30 pm, a fire alarm sounded at a Bayberry Drive residence, but there was no fire.

About 7 pm, the ambulance corps went to the Nunnawauk Meadows elderly housing complex on Nunnawauk Road on a call, but no patient transport was needed.

About two and one-half hours later, at 9:38 pm, the corps went to a Bentagrass Lane residence from which it transported a patient to Danbury Hospital.

Emergency fire and ambulance dispatcher B.J. Halstead said it was a very busy day.

“For an hour straight, it was answering the phone, or answering the radio,” he said.

It has been a while since so many major calls came in such close succession, he said, terming the day “exceptionally busy.”