Sam Gurwitt Photo
Merwede takes the oath.
Eleven thousand, seven hundred and fifteen — that’s how many calls newly sworn-in Hamden Fire Chief Gary Merwede’s department responded to in 2018. He anticipates even more this year.
Merwede cited that number as colleagues, friends, family, and members of the public packed into the town hall rotunda Friday afternoon to watch him take the oath of office to officially become Hamden’s next fire chief.
Merwede has been with the Hamden fire department since 1994, and was named deputy fire chief in 2014. He has been acting fire chief since Oct. 12, 2018, when predecessor David Berardesca retired.
“Under my watch we will work hard to improve and maintain our efficiency, but not at the cost of safety for the public, or our firefighters,” said Merwede in a brief speech after Town Clerk Vera Morrison administered the oath. “We will manage our resources, continue to absorb capacity, improve our effectiveness in training, and remain ready to respond as we did 11,715 times last year, a 15 percent increase over the last four years.”
Town Clerk Vera Morrison and Mayor Curt Leng.
After the ceremony, Merwede told the Independent that when he joined the department in 1994, it responded to between 4,000 and 5,000 calls per year. In 2019, he anticipates that calls will top 12,000. During last weekend’s storm alone, the department responded to 192 calls in 36 hours. It has had to meet the rapidly growing need with the same number of people and the same number of apparatuses.
“My long-range goals are to prepare the department for the future,” he said after the ceremony. “What energizes me is the possibility that my tenure in this position will have a positive effect.”
Merwede with State Sen. George Logan.
Many in the room expressed confidence that Merwede is up for the job.
“It makes me feel confident as a resident that we are making Chief Merwede our fire chief, and it makes me very relieved and excited as the mayor of this town that we will have a chief like Gary Merwede, to be a partner in governing and a partner in public safety,” Mayor Curt Leng said in his speech at the event.
After the ceremony, colleagues and friends echoed the mayor’s words.
“He’s a leader, and his personnel likes him a lot,” Fire Commission Chair Henry Candido said.
Glen Tricarico: “Modern leader.”
Assistant Superintendent of Apparatus Glen Tricarico called Merwede a “modern leader.” That, Tricarico explained, means being “knowledgeable, using modern technology, using resources that have become more available through modern fire service, and good training.”
Not to mention, he’s good with the numbers. “He’s just so good with the statistics of the department and the budget,” said Legislative Council Rep. Lauren Garrett. His expertise, she said, makes the work of the Legislative Council easier.
The Family Business
Paul Wetmore and Don Labanca, one of his former battalion chiefs.
Among those present at the ceremony were Merwede’s wife, Cheryl Merwede, and her father, Paul Wetmore. Wetmore served in Hamden’s fire department from 1962 until 1996, and was chief for part of that time.
Wetmore told the Independent that he started riding the fire trucks when he was 12 years old. The firefighters would hoist him up onto the truck and bring him to wherever the fire was. It was “mostly bushfires” back then. Once they arrived, Wetmore would shoulder a water tank up the hill to where the firefighters were trying to put out the blaze.
As Wetmore watched his son-in-law greet acquaintances after the ceremony, he offered wisdom from 34 years in the service: “Who would run in a building when everyone else is running out? See, you have to be crazy!”
Also in attendance was Marsha Walsh, who was chair of the Fire Commission in 1994 when Merwede was first hired. Merwede had given Walsh a special invitation. “Yesterday he called me and said ‘I’m being sworn in tomorrow and would you come,’ and I said absolutely.”
Once the crowd had left, and only Merwede and his family were left in the rotunda in front of the rows of empty chairs, the new chief told his wife that he had to get back upstairs. Duty called.
As Merwede expressed in his speech, he is aware of the responsibility that now rests on his shoulders.
He noted that “66 percent of businesses fail in their first 10 years. The fire department does not have that option. Our fire department covers 33 square miles, and more than 62,000 people in 19,700 structures. We cannot fail in our mission.”
