| AUGUST 11, 2011 -- Robert Bauer remembers well when he became a member of the Kent Volunteer Fire Department in 1951.
His evenings that first year were spent helping fellow firefighters build the firehouse on Main Street.
Theirs was the kind of camaraderie and community spirit that has exemplified the department since its start in 1911.
"We didn't have turnout gear when I started," recalled Mr. Bauer, who served as fire chief from 1975 to 1980. "We bought black rain gear and had (fishermen's) waders with steel toes that hooked to our belts."
"Our first handsets were long and cumbersome with 16 `D' batteries in them," he reminisced. "When diodes and transistors came out, we got transistorized ones. Today, they use digital."
What started a century ago as the Kent Hose Company, with 18 charter members and meetings presided over by Egbert A. Morehouse, has grown to the Kent Volunteer Fire Department, with 77 active members and more than 100 members including auxiliary and veterans.
The firehouse on Maple Street, completed in 2008, is 15,000 square feet, providing housing for all seven department vehicles, better work space to maneuver around equipment and much-needed office space for the storage of important documents and reports, department officials concur.
"As the times have changed and the demographics of the community have changed," said KVFD president Alan Gawel. "The makeup of the department has changed with it."
"Take Bob Bauer or Bill Blank, with 15 years between their joining. They had different drives that led them to join," Mr. Gawel said. "For Bob, it was community involvement. For Bill, he hung out at the firehouse as a kid."
"There were probably 10 of us who joined in 1995," he said. "Almost all of us had fathers or uncles in the department. Most of us worked locally and many of us worked together."
Like a host of volunteer fire departments throughout New England, Kent's had humble beginnings.
Stationed in a converted horse barn on Bridge Street, the members responded to the ringing of church bells when a fire call was sounded.
Boxes with glass fronts were placed at St. Andrew's and the Congregational Church. Anyone who saw a fire break out would run to the church, break the glass, take the key from inside the box and open the church door -- rushing in and ringing the bells.
By 1917, an iron circle formed from an old railroad tie was used as the alarm. Suspended by the firehouse, it was clanged with an sledge hammer to sound the call to a fire. It had been donated by J. Burleigh Morton, an alumnus of Kent School.
During the 1930s, the alarm sounded at the telephone office in town, with one of the two operators then blowing the air siren. A chain of phone calls would go out to further alert firefighters.
"I remember when we bought the first Seagrove firetruck for $18,000," Mr. Bauer said. "We thought that was the cat's meow. I think today they pay $400,000 for a truck."
Chief Eric Epstein nodded in agreement.
With the loss this spring of the company's primary response vehicle that burned in a grass fire, a department committee is now searching for a replacement at an affordable price, he said.
The department has since acquired a truck formerly owned by the Watertown firefighters and will use that as a backup once they have a new truck in its fleet.
There have been many trucks over the years.
The first pumper came in 1923: "an apparatus consisting of 2 tanks, holding about 30 gallons of water... mounted on a two-wheeled cart," department minutes read.
At a fire, acid and soda would be added to water and pressure forced the liquid through "perhaps 50 feet of common rubber hose," meeting minutes reveal. It cost $800.
In 1927, Chief F. P. Johnson bought a Pope Hartford fire truck at his own expense.
Other trucks were to follow.
In 1982, department members traveled to Roanoke, Va., and drove a Grumman pumper back to town.
The first community ambulance arrived in 1975 when resident Jim Aiken donated the funds to purchase it. The endowment started from Mr. Aiken's initial donation still funds the ambulance corps today, according to Mr. Epstein.
By 1977, women were joining the department as auxiliary members and serving in the ambulance corps.
Among them were Donna Gawel, Carol Jankowski and Leslie Connery and her daughter, Carol. Today, one-third of the members of the department are women.
Dawn Molnar joined as an auxiliary member in 1993, becoming an active member in 1994. She served as department president in 2007 and has also served as quarter master and company clerk.
"We appreciate as members what our fellow residents do to support us," Mrs. Molnar said. "We put on the carnival for the kids, the ball for the adults. We like to get the folks together."
"We're a small close-knit town," she added, "and the people who live here year round look forward to the events."
The firemen's fair was first held in 1929. Its chairman was Allan McDowell and it raised $10,000. Meeting minutes of the event state "Some of us will never forget the midway with Hennie Cole and Dot Yaff as the photographic girls."
The firemen's ball was first held in 1914, with attending members not wearing their red dress uniforms fined 50 cents each, meeting minutes reveal.
The KVFD's benefit ice watch was started in the winter of 1977-78 with residents taking a guess when the ice would break up on the Housatonic River just south of town.
Its first year, the contest raised $850 for the fire department and resident Marjorie Baum won $850 for the best guess.
Since 1912, fire department members have marched in the town's Memorial Day Parade.
"We continue to do these things because our members take ownership in the community," Mr. Gawel said. "When I joined 16 years ago, I heard how the grange used to be a huge source of that spirit in the town.
"With the move away from farming, the grange ceased to exist," he said. "But the volunteer fire department survived out of necessity and has kept that sense of community spirit alive."
At its earliest roots, the KVFD also served surrounding towns. In 1937, it became part of the Litchfield County Fire Chiefs Emergency Plan to provide support service to other towns in the district.
"Eric (Epstein) spearheaded an increase in our membership growth by creating associate membership for people who live in neighboring towns near the border of Kent," Mr. Gawel said. "They can respond to our fire and EMS calls. Their certifications are recognized and honored by our department."
"I joined in 1994," said Mr. Epstein, who has served as chief for 11 years. "My neighbor when I was growing up, Ben Howland, encouraged me. I used to hang out at the department as a boy when he was an active member."
The Kent Volunteer Fire Department is always recruiting new emergency members.
Certification is available in skills from fire fighting to search and rescue to emergency medical services.
For more information, email kentfire@kentfire.org. Applications are available at www.kentfire.org.
Historical information in this article came from The Kent Historical Society records, including a booklet on the department written in 1952 by Harry J. Casey.
"There were probably 10 of us who joined in 1995. Almost all of us had fathers or uncles in the department. Most of us worked locally and many of us worked together."
-- Alan Gawel
President of the Kent Volunteer Fire Department |
