Two of  Captain Chichester’s sons are Stamford Fire Fighters also.  Peter is a Firefighter  on Truck 2 and Keith  is a Lieutenant assigned to Engine 9).

Our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Chichester family. Service arrangements will be posted as soon as they are announced.

Here is a great example how career members of the  Stamford Fire & Rescue firefighters worked hand-in-hand with the volunteers of the Glenbrook Fire Department to make a difference for the citizens of Stamford.  It can work and it does work!

My Dear Friends,

As I write this I am not even sure why it happened, but Monday (the first day of summer) around 6:30 pm we were plunged into darkness and oppressive, breezeless heat. The power went out. I and my dogs and cats were fine, but many of the residents of Bishop Curtis Homes behind the rectory here at St. Maurice Parish were not. They were scared. They were forced out of their apartments by curiosity and the heat and many residents with varying physical conditions quickly experienced distress.

Within minutes, like knights in shining armor, members of the Glenbrook and Stamford Fire Depts. Along with rescue workers were charging up the hill with great concern and needed assistance. They checked each apartment, set up generators and provided essential portable oxygen to numerous residents alleviating their panic until the power returned around 8:30 pm: and that’s not all! The City of Stamford Public Safety Mobile Command Vehicle arrived to provide a comfortable air conditioned resting place until the crisis abated.

THEN IT ALL HAPPENED AGAIN! Just when we all thought we were safe and secure for the night the electric-less dark overtook us for a second time in four hours! This time the response was even faster and broader. The Fire and Rescue vehicles and personnel along with the Mobile Command Center returned. Neighbors came around asking if they could be of any help. Jerry Pia, neighbor, parishioner and director of the Glenbrook Community Center ran over to let the residents know that there was a comfortable air conditioned (and electrified!) respite available to them at the Center until the problem was fixed. Power did return around 11:30 pm, yet the Mobile Command Center remained all night!

What a wonderful community Glenbrook is! What professionalism and devotion to their passion and job the Fire and Health officials demonstrated! What compassion neighbors like Jerry and so many others exhibited! THANK YOU. You make us all realize how safe we are. You also make us secure and proud to call Glenbrook our home!.

Father Bert, Pastor
St. Maurice Church

Wake
Sunday, May 9th   1400-1800
Gallagers Funeral Home
2900 Summer St.
Stamford, CT

Funeral
Monday, May 10th @ 10:30
St. Clement of Rome Church
535 Fairfield Ave.
Stamford, CT

ALL SFRD MEMBERS ATTENDING ARE ASKED TO WEAR THEIR CLASS A UNIFORM FOR THE WAKE AND FUNERAL.

Firefighter Gage was an eight year veteran with the Stamford Fire Rescue Department assigned to the South End Fire Station. Sean was an outstanding firefighter, but most of all an outstanding, compassionate person that cared about the citizens he was sworn to protect and serve as a firefighter with this department.

Prior to his employment with the City of Stamford Sean graduated from Fairfield Preparatory School in Fairfield where he excelled in academics and played lacrosse and football where he was named as a Scholar Athlete by the National Football Foundation and to the College Hall of Fame.

After graduation Sean attended the University of Delaware where he excelled in academics and graduated with a BA in Art, Art History and Economics.

In his youth Sean was an avid Boy Scout where he attained the rank of Eagle Scout receiving many awards for his public service while volunteering for the Greenwich Audubon Society.

On October 6, 2007 Sean, while competing in a half marathon in Ridgefield Connecticut, Sean stopped to work on a competitor whom had suffered a cardiac arrest, and successfully revived him.

Sean was named recently as Stamford Fire Rescue Department’s Firefighter of the Year.

Sean has touched many lives and leaves a deep void in the department, community and our hearts.

CHIEF ROBERT J. Mc GRATH

Funeral arrangements to be announced.

The wake is January 6, 2010 from 4-8 pm at Cognetta’s Funeral Home. Cognetta’s is located at 104 Myrtle Avenue in Stamford. Class A uniform is requested for all Stamford Fire & Rescue Employees but is not required.

The funeral service and burial will be private.

The fire service really began to organize on August 11, 1844, when at a meeting of the freemen, it was “resolved that the Borough will purchase two fire engines with hose, hooks, ladders, etc., as the necessity of the Borough may require.” A tax of 10 mills on the dollar was levied to defray this expense, but only one engine was purchased.

In December 1844 the Rippowam Fire Engine Company No. 1 was formed with Sands Seeley as foreman. The engine purchased was put in his charge and an engine house was erected in the rear of the Town Hall. This became Rippowam’s headquarters.

Fire Engine Company No. 2 was chartered in 1845. This company was housed on Gay Street. In later years Company No. 2 became the Gulf Stream Company No. 2 and was supplemented by No. 2 Hose Company.

Later, with the introduction of a piped water supply, these hand pumpers fell into disuse. Rippowam became the Atlantic Coast Company, housed on Advocate Place. The Relief Hook & Ladder Company, located on Broad Street, was part of the Volunteer Fire Department for two decades.

On September 19, 1882, the Borough freemen resolved to purchase a steam fire engine, after the disastrous Presbyterian Church fire on August 7, when they observed how well a steamer from Norwalk performed. Radical changes were begun in 1885 which gradually resulted in the abolition of the volunteer system. The number of men was reduced and the Fire Department was placed under control of the Board of Warden and Burgesses, and Richard Bolster was appointed Chief Engineer. The whole Department was housed on Advocate Place, with the exception of Pacific Hose Company which stayed in South Stamford.

The Stamford Fire Department was actually organized in 1885, from the several volunteer companies, to a part paid and part call force. By that time it was housed in the fire station on Luther Street. Between 1904 and 1909 there was a gradual elimination of the call fireman system.

The Look of Stamford a Century Ago
East Main Street from Atlantic Square, 1909

The burning of the Town Hall in 1904, together with another serious fire later in the same year, revealed a lack of equipment and serious defects with the apparatus and system in use. Two more fire stations were built in 1909 and the introduction of motor apparatus came in 1910. A new Central Fire Station on Main Street was completed in 1915, and in this year the Department became fully motorized.

From these humble beginnings the Stamford Fire Department has grown and progressed to become the modern, efficient and up-to-date Department that serves the City of Stamford today.

As part of the record keeping system of most large paid fire departments, log books are kept and maintained at a watch desk located on the apparatus room floor or in a glass enclosed office just off the floor. These watch desks are manned 24 hours a day by a fireman who logs in various types of information.

The Stamford Historical Society is grateful to have acquired these items from the Stamford Fire Department in 1977.

By: Robert D. Towne
Stamford Historical Society 1996
Stamford Hostorical Society
(http://www.stamfordhistory.org)

STAMFORD — A Hilton hotel driver escaped unscathed after being trapped in his van Sunday morning by fallen wires caused by a transformer fire Sunday morning on Greenwich Avenue near 1 Stamford Place, Stamford Police Lt. Sean Cooney said.

The fire was caused by a squirrel that became trapped in the transformer equipment, Connecticut Light & Power spokesman Mitch Gross said.

A group of about 40 customers were left without power until 8 p.m., while another 940 customers were without power from about 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon, Gross said.

The fire closed Greenwich Avenue between Pulaski Street and Richmond Hill Road, and the Interstate 95 northbound Exit 7 off-ramp for about 90 minutes, Cooney said.

Though the driver was uninjured, he was taken to Stamford Hospital as a precaution where he was examined and released, Cooney said.