Aerial Training Drills at Headquarters
Members of the West Haven Fire Department are always hard at work to hone their skills. In this instance, we conducted aerial ladder training at our Center District headquarters. To train is to succeed!
Month: September 2023
Monthly Rotary Club Meeting at Lorenzo’s Restaurant
Bonding with our community is of great importance to us here at the West Haven Fire Department and we were incredibly fortunate and grateful to have been able to do so last week as Chief of Department James O’Brien, Deputy Chief William Johnson, Day Captain Jacob Urban, and Digital Services Specialist Mike Colon had the pleasure of speaking with West Haven residents at the West Haven Rotary’s regularly held luncheon meeting.
Remembering September 11, 2001
The City of West Haven honored the sacrifice, courage and loss of first responders, victims, and the families and communities impacted by the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. While it is human nature to have the pain and circumstance of life allow the memories of such an event to fade, it remains essential that we #neverforget, and as we mark this 22nd year since that awful day, that date takes on greater meaning. This morning, we read the names of each of the 343 firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11/01. And this year was the first year that post-9/11 occupational cancer deaths, directly linked to the rescue and recovery efforts that followed in the days, weeks, and months afterwards, surpassed the 343 mark, meaning more firefighters have died from cancer trying to recover their fallen brothers and sisters, than died on that day, with plenty more to unfortunately follow the same path. Also, for the first time in our department’s history, we have firefighters who were born after 9/11/01. With that, we have an additional essential responsibility to teach this new generation of not just our mistakes, but our triumphs too. Our failures, as well as our joys. How we got here and where we can succeed. The worst and the best came out of 9/11. 22 years later, our next step is to teach the next generation of first responders while they may not be able to forget something they’ve never known, they should #alwaysremember why we do the Job…
WHFD Antique Pumper Now on Display at Robert Johnson Community Center
An essential piece of our history is now on display at the Robert A. Johnson Community Center. Our antique pumper, an 1889 Button Crane Neck was moved into the facility for public view. Special thanks goes to the City of West Haven and staff as well as Gary Middagh and Robert Bruneau of Bruneau’s Garage, Superintendent of Apparatus Tony Capuano, Beth Sabo, Tom McCarthy, Deputy Chief William Johnson, Ken Carney, the West Haven Board of Fire Commissioners, West Haven Fire Department Chief Officers, and retired West Haven Fire Department Lieutenant and Department Historian William Heffernan. History preserved is history remembered!
The West Haven Fire Department Welcomes 8 New Recruits
Sincere congratulations to our eight new recruits who were officially sworn in as members of the West Haven Fire Department. These recruits have commenced their 14 weeks of training at the Connecticut Fire Academy. They were hired under the Safer Grant provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants (SAFER) was created to provide funding directly to fire departments and volunteer firefighter interest organizations to help them increase or maintain the number of trained, “front line” firefighters available in their communities. The West Haven Fire Department is one of only two departments in Connecticut to receive this grant in 2023. Aggressively pursuing grants such as this is one of many ways the West Haven Fire Department brings the citizens of West Haven the best possible service. We wish these recruits the best and look forward to having them on staff and working with them in the near future. We congratulate them once more on their noble choice of joining the West Haven Fire Department.
