Firehouse Opens Doors To Replenish Ranks

Jeffrey Hines brought his kids to touch a Hamden fire truck — and left with an application to drive the truck one day himself.

In the process, his family participated in a two-pronged mission launched by a fire department looking to bulk up its ranks.

Hines’ family attended an event held Saturday at the 100-year-old Humphrey Firehouse, whose doors were opened wide after closing at the start of the pandemic. 

Besides welcoming the public to reconnect with a public service, the open house offered kids a chance to touch a truck, with the hope some will one day consider becoming more involved as adult firefighters. The event was the latest in a series of steps to convince potential firefighters, especially ones of color, like Hines, to put in applications now.

Future firefighters — from 4‑year-olds to 40-year-olds — crowded the historic station for the opportunity to pose in a vehicle, take a tour of the grounds, and learn more about what it’s like and what it takes to be a firefighter.

“In 19 years we’ve never done an open house like this,” newly named Assistant Fire Chief Jeffrey Naples told the Independent.

“Typically people come to the door, and we’ll show anybody the trucks,” he said. ​“Today is one of those opportunities to see where we live and how we operate on a daily basis — to show that we are part of the community.”

On Saturday, some of those recruitment efforts were aimed at kids like Audrey Larrow, a nine-year-old Helen Street Elementary student.

Audrey, plus her mom and two-year-old sister, were among a stream of families who flooded the Circular Avenue Station 2 this weekend.

When Audrey first started attending elementary school, she went on a field trip to the neighborhood’s fire station — and started to envision a future of putting out fires, feeding families, and taking care of her local community.

“I always wanted to be one ever since I was a kid!” she commented, remembering the first time she watched local firefighters in action, as they responded to flames shooting out the roof of her neighbor’s house.

“She’s got that fire spirit, such spunk,” her mom, Christina Larrow said of Audrey, adding that she’s supportive of her daughter’s possible career pathway.

Other adult Hamdenites showed up to the event not just to give their kids an entertaining and informative morning but to access guidance about next steps in joining the force themselves.

While children eagerly expressed their desires to one day become firefighting ​“superheroes,” many older family members were just starting to seriously consider the profession.

Jeffrey Hines was monitoring his three children — who were busy testing out employee bunkers, getting their hands on giveaway activity books, and gazing with awe at firefighters — while simultaneously scanning through papers guiding him through a May 2 job application.

Hines, who currently works as a supervisor for a medical device company, originally planned to follow in the professional footsteps of his brother, an officer with the New Haven Police Department — but ultimately declined an offer from the city to do just that.

Instead, the criminal justice student — who graduated with a bachelors from the University of New Haven — decided that firefighting might offer an alternative route into a public safety profession, allowing him to help people without policing them.

“There’s a stigma that the fire department is not for people of color,” he commented. ​“The department has to do more community outreach,” he insisted, noting that Saturday’s event was a step in the right direction.

The event aimed to recruit more people into the firefighting field while paying special attention to building a diverse workforce. The 86 percent white, entirely male department is currently understaffed by at least 12 employees, resulting in extra long hours for current staff as well as inefficient overtime costs paid for by residents. The level of need has only grown greater since November, when nine members of the department retired.

“We just have to bring awareness to the public — sometimes there’s a lack of information in regards to how to get here,” Naples said. In line with that ideology, the fire department has been amping up recruitment initiatives over the past few months: Giving presentations on EMT scholarships to Hamden High students, speaking to members of the public at community center health fairs, and making plans to attend Hamden Middle School’s earth day activities.

“This is in reach for anybody who is willing to put in the time and the effort,” Naples maintained.

Hines, one of ten individuals who picked up applications at Saturday’s event, has a head start in his application — he is already a certified EMT. But in order to work with the Hamden firefighting department, he will still have to take the candidate physical ability test and fill out a full job application – as an entry-level candidate, the department would theoretically pay for him to go through a training academy to become a certified firefighter.

His children, Isaiah, Isabella, and Michelle, have at least a decade before they turn 18, one of the profession’s eligibility requirements. But the trio seemed satisfied taking turns sitting in the driver’s seat of the station’s engine.

“I was doing the exact same thing in 1983,” Battalion Chief Adam Barletta said as the kids pretended to steer. His father worked at the same Circular Avenue firehouse.

“This is my favorite firehouse of of the five,” he added, reflecting on the building’s history, and remembering when firefighters would travel to scenes of emergency by horse.

Because of the population density around the Humphrey House, it’s also the most active station in town. 

But the station’s age has been showing for a long time — and Hamden just received state bonding money to build a replacement structure on Putnam Avenue that will better suit the fire department’s modern needs. 

Similarly, the department’s leadership hopes that the work family filling that station will look more like a modern one after more women and people of color are soon hired.

“Some of the new members might be five years old,” Barletta said with a smile. ​“We just have to wait.”