Sandy Hook Fire Company

Modernizes Its Riverside Road Firehouse

By Andrew Gorosko

If you are just an occasional visitor to the Sandy Hook Firehouse, you might be startled on your next visit. The place has been transformed.

Enter through the back door, and instead of the large, aging banquet hall, which the fire company had rented out to the public for various occasions, you will find a modern corridor leading to a cozy lounge complete with a massive television, elaborate trophy display, and a red-and-chrome bar fashioned from a large section of a salvaged fire truck.

That dimly lit lounge leads to a bright spacious meeting room equipped with modern computer gear and television equipment that is used for firefighting training.

A walk to the other side of the firehouse reveals that the old meeting space there has been converted into a spacious modern office for the fire chief and the fire company’s officers.

Also, other interior space nearby has been renovated from its former aging late-1970s appearance into office space that meets contemporary standards.

In an interview in his office, Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company Chief Bill Halstead explained that fire company members had decided that it was time to make better use of firehouse’s space, so they initiated a thorough renovation project.

That renovation includes the installation of specialized ventilation equipment in the fire company’s seven-bay garage, which will channel the exhaust fumes produced by idling fire trucks there through massive hoses to expel the noxious gases outdoors.

Fire company members did much of the renovation work themselves to hold down costs, Chief Halstead noted.

Overall, the improvements cost approximately $150,000, roughly half of which was covered by federal grant money, with the remainder assumed by the fire company, Chief Halstead said.

The initial renovation work began in the spring of 2003. If weather conditions are favorable, the project may be completed by the end of December, he said. The firehouse was built in 1977.

To commemorate the fire company’s success in winning trophies at parades and competitions, many of the unit’s award are now displayed in custom-built trophy cases in a section of the firefighters’ lounge. The organization has won about 300 trophies over the years.

Chief Halstead said that faced with the need for more space for fire company activities, the group decided that rather than adding new space onto the firehouse, it should instead convert its existing space for more efficient use.