THE FFA Fire Supression Crew -

Remembering When Firefighting In Newtown Was Done By Students

By Jan Howard

It was 1941, the town of Newtown was small and rural, manpower was in short supply, and the state needed help fighting fires in state forests. It looked to high schools for help.

The Future Farmers of America (FFA) fire suppression crew at Hawley High School was one of several crews throughout the state that formed in response to the need.

The fire suppression crew at Hawley began in the spring of 1941. One of its first members was apparently a young 4-H member, Robert Wilkes, a vo-ag student at the high school and an ardent supporter of forest preservation. Many other vo-ag students volunteered their time from 1941 until the vo-ag program was discontinued in the early 1970s.

Within the first six years of its organization, the crew responded to 75 fires in the woods and fields in Newtown and surrounding towns.

The first crew received their training from forest ranger Wallace Wallack and patrolman William Durant. Vincent P. Gaffney, the state forest fire warden and a vocational agriculture teacher and advisor to the FFA chapter, supervised the crew from its creation until 1972. He retired in 1973.

“We called him Boss,” Bill Halstead remembers. He was a member of the crew from 1965 to 1968.

According to Mr Halstead,  following Mr Gaffney’s retirement his assistant, Millard Goodsell, who also taught at the high school, headed up the crew.

“We always had a waiting list. It wasn’t always easy to get on it because it was limited to two ten-man crews,” he said. “If the fire was bad, both of the crews went; but only one was sent at first.”

Mr Halstead said the crew’s equipment consisted of five-gallon water tanks, which they carried on their backs, and tools , such as fire brooms. They also had a portable pump to set up at streams, with hoses that were carried in packs.

David Breakell of Goshen, a former vo-ag teacher at Nonnewaug High School in Woodbury, said the fire suppression crews were an offshoot of the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC). He said the students were paid about 35 cents an hour, though Larry Cole, a former resident, remembered earning 25 cents an hour. He was a member of the crew from 1947 to 1950.

No matter what the pay was, there was another facet of the crew that attracted the teens. “We got out of class, and that was good,” Mr Cole said.

Mr Breakell said most fires in Newtown occurred in forest areas located near the railroad tracks, probably because of hot ashes from steam engines.

Mr Breakell said forest fires were spotted by observers in a network of lookout towers located 10 or 15 miles apart on hilltops. Using their data, the fire could then be precisely pinpointed on large-scale maps of the state. The tower system was operational until the late 1970s.

Reports of local brush fires were usually made to the town’s telephone operator, who would relay the information to the fire warden, who would then call the crew members. They would make a quick change into old clothing, which they always had in readiness at the school, and into old shoes to tread on the burning embers.

During the summer, the telephone operator would call the boys direct, according to former crew member Jack Watkins, who spent four years working with the crew.

According to Fire Marshal George Lockwood, the fire suppression crew was overseen by the state. “They still have these crews,” he said, noting Mr Gaffney probably recruited students because there weren’t enough men available for firefighting.

Months before the United States entered World War II, men were being inducted into military service.  Newtown Bee issues prior to December of 1941 list the names of men who were either inducted or volunteered. America was getting ready for its inevitable involvement.

Mr Lockwood said students were probably preferred as members of the crew so adults would not have to be pulled out of local factories or off the farms to fight fires.

 He said the fire suppression crew was particularly useful in areas that fire trucks could not reach.

Statutes regarding the fire wardens and fire suppression crews are still on the books today, according to Ralph Scarpino, a forest fire supervisor with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

There are two active crews in the state, he said, and while most members are adults, some students are still involved. Initially, he said, the fire crews fell under the responsibility of the Connecticut Park and Forest Commission. After the formation of the DEP, they came under the jurisdiction of its Forest Division.

“During the war years, there was a national campaign to fight fires in the forests because the wood was needed to help defeat the Nazis,” Mr Scarpino said. He said high school students were needed to fill the void left when men went into the military.

Charles Newman was a member of the FFA crew in 1957 and 1958. “We got paid by the state. Vincent Gaffney would put in our hours, and we would personally get checks,” he said.

The crew augmented the fire department, which was sparsely manned at the time, he said. “They would do training and teach us how to use the equipment. There were a bunch of us on call.”

He remembers “the joy of getting out there and putting a fire out.”

He said the group would often meet at Mr Gaffney’s farm to train. “Mrs Gaffney would chase all the boys out of her strawberry patch,” he said, laughing. “We had a lot of fun those years.”

“[The crew] was not restricted to Newtown fires,” Mr Newman said. “Anywhere there was a fire in the area, we would go.”

Mr Halstead said, “We were very busy at a time when people were allowed to burn whenever they wanted to. There were a lot of brush fires.”

“We’d go to the fires in Boss’s car and someone’s station wagon,” said Chuck Botsford, a member of the crew in 1950. He remembered responding to a large brush fire in Wilton.

“We all liked it because we got out of class,” he added, laughing.

The high school yearbook in 1950 was dedicated to Mr Gaffney, noting, “The genial ‘boss’ of our ‘aggie’ students, Mr Gaffney has long contributed time, effort and patience to his students and to the community. His seemingly reserved manner never prevents him from giving enjoyment to his pupils who have great respect and admiration for him.”