Firefighters Hop On Trolley To Fight Brush Fire

Branford Firefighters hopped the trolley Saturday afternoon to get to a spreading, smoky brush fire in a dense section of woods off the Farm River. To get to the remote fire near the old Quarry, about a half mile from Clark Avenue, one had to travel by boat or by foot.

Or by trolley.

The Branford Fire Department has a longstanding relationship with the Shore Line Trolley Museum whose trolleys will take firefighters and their heavy equipment closer to a fire. It saves a lot of walking and speeds up a process that needs to move quickly. 

Fire Capt. Joseph M. Petrosino led the crews out to the trolley track connecting Short Beach and East Haven. The trolley awaited them. John Disarro, III, the trolley car driver, said Saturday was the first time this spring that the trolley made a fire run.

Typically, the trolley runs from the Shore Line Trolley museum in East Haven to Short Beach’s Clark Avenue, taking visitors through a beautiful section of marshland. On Saturday the trolley stopped mid-way between Short Beach and East Haven to let the firefighters off.

Brush fires are labor intensive, said Deputy Chief Tom Mahoney, as he stood with fire trucks at the entrance to the trolley run. Engine companies from Short Beach and Indian Neck along with Tac 6, the department’s brush unit, worked the fire, which firefighters put out in about 10 minutes. Then the crews watered-down the earth.

The Indian Neck unit carries a floating pump, which is used in brush fires like this one.

The fire and smoke, visible a couple of hundred feet from the trolley tracks, came from a place on a hill with a spectacular view of the Farm River and marshes, the kind of place where kids hang out and campfires are made. Picnics are common.

There were 10 or so firefighters, some of whom were volunteers and four of whom are in training. 

Once inside the forest, they walked in a line, weaving around the trees and toward the fire. See top photo.

Here is Firefighter Pat King at work.

Two forestry lines were deployed off a portable floating pump propped up near the Farm River.

“Luck was with us. It was good we were near the water,” said Lt. Chris Gagiliardi of the Indian Neck station. ​“This is the first time we took the pump out this year. It’s good training,” he said.

If there were no trolley, the firefighters would have had to walk nearly a mile to get to the scene, all carrying heavy equipment.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, Petrosino told the Eagle at the scene.

John Moran of East Haven was walking home from work when he spied the fire, he said, adding that he managed to contain ​“a small percentage of the fire” when he first came upon it. His theory was a campfire was not properly put out. He stayed to watch the firefighters at work. 

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