Bill Halstead Marks 25th Anniversary As Sandy Hook Fire Chief

By Andrew Gorosko

Amid the conviviality of more than 50 members of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company and its ladies auxiliary, Fire Chief Bill Halstead was honored at a surprise party at the Sandy Hook Firehouse this week for having served as fire chief for the past 25 years.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal presented Chief Halstead with a certificate of appreciation from the town for his years of service in leading Sandy Hook firefighters.

Chief Halstead’s son, B.J., and his daughter, Karin, presented their father with a handsome plaque from the fire company, noting his many years of work in the fire service. Both B.J. and Karin are fire company members.

Chief Halstead, 54, of Cherry Street, joined the fire service in 1965. He has been its chief since 1978. He is the fifth person to serve as Sandy Hook’s fire chief.

Looking back at the company over the length of his tenure, Chief Halstead said, “We’re a lot bigger than we were.”

“Over the years, our [fire] company has expanded very rapidly,” he said.

The unit has expanded in terms of membership, its fire apparatus, and its equipment. The organization now has 61 members. The fire company is annually dispatched on between 400 and 500 calls.

“I’ve always had a good group of officers behind me. Every officer has a task to do,” Chief Halstead said. “We try to be as progressive as possible…We do as much as possible,” he said.

The fire company conducts many fundraisers to help pay for fire equipment and firefighting training, he noted.

Asked how he has changed during his years of heading the organization, the chief responded that he has become “more mellow.”

Chief Halstead said he would like to continue serving as the fire company’s chief for at least one additional two-year term. The next officer elections are slated for next June.

As Sandy Hook continues to expand in terms of new construction and population, the number of calls that firefighters respond to continues to increase, the chief noted. But the nature of those calls has been changing over the years, he said.

In the past, a greater proportion of calls involved structure fires. But with technological improvements being made in fire protection, such as the extensive use of automatic residential fire alarms, there are proportionally fewer structure fire calls, Chief Halstead noted.

A growing proportion of fire company calls involve motor vehicle accidents and medical assistance situations, he said.

Challenges for the future involve firefighters potentially dealing with the effects of terroristic weapons of mass destruction, Chief Halstead said.

“There’s a big move to get everyone trained, to get everyone equipped,” he said of the potential for terrorism. Being prepared for such incidents means being properly trained to handle them and being suitably equipped, he said.

Among the thousands of calls for service to which he has responded, Chief Halstead has strong memories of a major winter nighttime fire in Sandy Hook Center in 1967, which did extensive damage in the area near Sandy Hook Diner. 

The intensity of the fire, which involved four buildings, was compounded by severe icing conditions, which made fighting the blaze complicated, he said.

Besides his work as Sandy Hook’s fire chief, Chief Halstead is the town’s fire marshal and its emergency management director. He also serves as chairman of Combined Chiefs Committee, a panel comprised of the fire chiefs of the town’s five volunteer fire companies. The other fire companies are Newtown Hook and Ladder, Botsford, Hawleyville, and Dodgingtown.

Chief Halstead served as the fire chief at Fairfield Hills for 17 years, until June 1997. The former state psychiatric institution, which the town is buying from the state, closed to patients in December 1995.

A member of several fire organizations, Mr Halstead belongs to the International Association of Arson Investigators.

Besides the fire service, Chief Halstead enjoys golfing, playing poker, and attending stock car races.