A history of the AVFD as written (but not proof read) by Don Griswold
Chapter 1
A Meager but Spirited Beginning
We will start with the beginning of the Cheery Pond Fire Unit, I was a member back in 1945, at the age of 15 years old. I was on the State of Connecticut Forest Fire Crew that was made up of high school kids from the CantonHigh School. This crew went out on a minutes notice when the call came in on a forest fire. The state would call the high school and the principal would announce that the fire crew was excused to go out on the fire call. Our transportation was an old Packard four door with all our gear stored in a big wooden box on the rear bumper. Mrs. Fran Emigh was the driver and her husband was the State Forest Warden. Getting back to the topic of being a member of the Cheery Pond unit, I was only 15 it the time, and they voted me out when they found out that I was under age. That didn’t stop me from going to the fires with my father and helping out though, as he was also a member. I later became a member of the Secret Lake Fire Department when I turned 16, and was a member until I went into the Navy.
The Secret Lake Department was organized in 1946, and the Cheery Pond Department was organized some time just after the war ended. There is not much history to go back to on the Cheery Pond Department as the unit was an off shoot of the Civil Defense Unit that covered the SecretLake area and was part of the Cheery Pond Association. [Check the name of the assoc]. The Association served the Avon/Canton areas that were located in the SecretLake development that was subdivided and established by the James Lowell Family in 1929 and 1930. Both of these departments later merged into one unit on March 14, 1946 and was known as the Secret Lake Fire Department until 1960. At that time there were over 300 people living in the lake area, most of them defense workers that commuted to the Hartford areas to work in the factories producing war material during World War II.
[Check dates on the Reo truck purchase] The first piece of fire equipment was hand built in Bob Dewey’s garage on Pine Trail as he had a garage big enough to hold a truck chassis. Bob worked in a Ford Dealership in Hartford and had access to a good deal on the 1948 Ford chassis. The men built the truck by hand and installed the pump and tank and ladder racks, and hose bed. They put on the equipment they had on hand and bought what they didn’t have as they could afford it. That truck was housed in the garage until the fire house was built. They went on to build a smaller truck in 1950 that had a front end pump on it so they could drive down to the lake edge and pump water up to the larger truck that laid out the hose.
Their next big project was to build a Fire House on the corner of Secret Lake Road and Pine Trail. The land was donated by Russ Thompson a member of the department and former chief of the Cheery Pond Unit. The members purchased the lot next to the proposed fire house site and used both parcels for the building. This was a 2 bay station with a meeting room for use by the firemen and the Association, and was dedicated on April 14, 1947.
The department also purchased 3 ambulances over the 13 years to provide ambulance service to the community. The ambulance was stored between the two fire engines, and one of them had to be moved to get the ambulance out for a call. Things were very tight in the fire house, with the old wood stove in the rear to keep it warm in the winter. The men took turns keeping the fire going so the engines wouldn’t freeze up. The Lake was a tight community of people willing to serve and make the best of what they had, so they had a reasonable chance to survive if there was a fire or other emergency.
The West Avon Fire Department was formed and organized on October 14, 1946 by the local men in the West Avon area. The spark that ignited this department was James {Jim} Bergen when he bought a then vintage 1918 Seagraves Fire Truck from the Tunxis Hose Company in Unionville, and drove it up Brickyard road and to the amazement of Dick Caldwell watered his garden.
This was the start of the West Avon Fire department, a meeting was held at the West Avon Community Club, and the first officers were elected.With Jim’s $5.00 down payment on the old Seagraves truck, the fire department ran dances and suppers to finish paying off the $345.00 balance. The next project was to put a larger tank on the truck so there would be enough water to put out a fire. The truck only had a 250 gallon tank, and that didn’t last long at a good fire. The men solved this problem by carrying water in 40 quart milk cans on a flat bed truck to keep the pumper supplied with water. Frank and Lenny La Monica later stripped the truck and hand built a 1000 Gallon tank on the old chassis. This was a great improvement and gave the men a chance at saving a structure when they got to the fire.
Their next project was to house the truck. Land use was given to the fire department next to the community club, and a 1 bay fire house was built by the members. Money was raised by selling $20.00 bonds to the local families. The men later bought a portable pump and mounted it on a trailer so water could be drafted from ponds and brooks to supply the pumper. Money to support the Community Club and the Fire Department was raised from raffles and a small carnival in Burnham’s Field. The fire department also supplied fire protection for the horse show at the Farmington Polo Grounds to raise more money. The department later leased the gas station from Lenny LaMonica and ran it as a profit raising project. Dave Blacker was hired to run the station and some of the men worked on his days off. The department had a place to service there truck and get gas that was close to the fire house.
The alarm system was a phone fan out to all the members from Charlie Hughes’s home were the siren was blown and the fan out started. Each family proceeded to call the next fireman on the list. The men later dug a 30’ x 50’ x 6’ deep fire pond on Albert Thompson’s property on the corner of West Avon and Harris road to have a central location to get water. In 1950 the department purchased a Chevy chassis from O’Neil’s Garage. The old tank body and a new 500 gallon pump were installed on the new chassis to the tune of $2,240.00. The men attended fire schools in Burrville and Manchester and trained the ones that could not go to the schools. The West Avon Department merged with the Secret Lake Department and The Avon Fire Department into what in now the Avon Volunteer Fire Department Incorporated.
The Avon Center Fire Dept was organized October 14, 1943 by local men that saw the need for fire protection in the AvonCenter area. Most of these men served as Civil Defense personnel during the war years. The only fire protection was provided by the Ensign Bickford small pumper housed in Simsbury.
The members started out with an old converted dump truck and a 1927 Mack chain drive pumper that were housed in the old horse barn on the Ensign Bickford property. Fire calls came into the plant boiler room and the shop steam whistle was used to call in the firemen.
The war ended and some of the veterans that joined the department had some fire training from the service. The department bought a fairly new 1938 Mack open cab fire truck that had been in the Mystic fire house when it burned down. The truck was observed being towed to a junk yard and, George Alcott followed it and put a down payment on it till he could get back to Avon and have the members o.k. the purchase of the truck. The members striped the truck and renovated it into a great working piece of fire apparatus, which served to town for many years. The work put into this truck threw the fall and winter of 1944 can still be appreciated in what is now the parade truck that is still a part of the Avon Volunteer Fire Department.
The department bought a 3600 gallon tractor trailer truck to fill the need of carrying large amounts of water to the fires. They added a panel truck that was used as an emergency vehicle carrying tools and items that could not be put on the other trucks.
In 1950 the department purchased the first new fire pumper in town. A 1950 Chevy chassis was purchased from O’Neil’s Garage and fitted with a Maxim body with a 1000 gallon tank, and a 500 gallon pump and was put into use along side of the 1938 Mack pumper. She was slower than the Mack because not every member could master the dual rear end shifting, but the old girl put in more than 20 years of service for the town.
Most members of the department worked in town and were available for fire duty by their employers. Many worked for the Ensign Bickford Fuse Co. The Fuse Co. had its own fire brigade and many of the same people were on the fire department The center station, as it was called, supplied fire protection to the other fire districts when there was not enough personnel to cover a fire in their areas. It was not uncommon to find that one of the firemen’s wives in the other districts had driven a truck to the fire scene and had it ready for the men from the center station. The women were not allowed to enter a building, but they sure could drive the trucks.
The three fire departments operated separately through the 1950s, and raised their own funds to support their needs for new equipment and trucks. In the late 1950s money to operate separately was hard to come by, and the 3 departments started to talk about a merger into one department to save on duplicating equipment and vehicles and the expansion and growth of fire protection for the town.
There was a need for:
- Better coverage of the town and placing new fire houses in areas that would better serve the town.
- The set up of a single call number for fire calls and a central answering system for all residents to get help.
- A single board of directors with equal station representation on the board, with members from each of the 3 stations voting on there board members and there station officers from Deputy Chief down the line. The top line officers would be voted on by all of the members of the 3 stations.
Secret Lake had a problem of manning the trucks during the day as did the West Avon Department, the Lake department had some funds and 2 trucks and a ambulance and the 2 bay fire house, the West Avon department had very little funds and only one truck an a one bay station, the Center department had reasonable funds and 4 trucks, but did not own its fire house.
After 3 years of training together, and the merger committee studying the pros and cons, and who had the most and least to gain from the merger, it was decided and voted by each department to go ahead with the merger into what is now the Avon Volunteer Fire Department. This was a historic event unbeknown to the members at the time. It would be proven in later years that this move was the best thing for the town and the members of the department. The Avon Department became the envy of the State of Connecticut. The members fitted together with great vigor a determination to build and train one of the best volunteer departments in Connecticut. Very few towns have been able to make the joining of separate departments within there areas work as well as this town did. So on July 14, 1960 the new Avon Volunteer Fire Department was born from the blood and sweat and negotiations and years of hard work of the 3 separate fire department of the Town of Avon.
Chapter 2
The New and Glorious Beginning
The new beginning just didn’t happen by it self. It took many years of planning and hard work by all of the members, and the great understanding of the town fathers as to where we wanted to go, and how soon we wanted to get there, and of course how much it was going to cost. With the 3 fire department now 3 stations under one Chief and one board of directors, first steps were taken to move forward.
The first thing that was done was to form a planning committee comprised of 5 Fire Department Members and 5 Members Appointed by the Town of Avon. This committee was charged with working out a long range plan for the replacement of apparatus, equipment, fire stations, and the procuring land for new stations to better cover the town in areas that could support future members to operate the stations. The fire department set up a budget that comprised of town money and money raised by the department. The extension of the alarm system and a central dispatch with base radios in all stations and radios in all trucks was a great step in commutating within our department and other department in HartfordCounty.
The first fruits of the planning came in the purchase of a first new pumper by the town. A 1962 Howe professionally built pumper designed to be easily maintained by the members and fit the needs of the growing department. It had a 750 gallon mid-ship pump and a 1000 gallon tank with all the new fittings and hose. It was built on a Ford cab/over chassis so parts were easy to get, and it could be maintained at a regular Ford dealership.
