NEAFC 31st Annual Conference.pdf - New England Association of ...

NEW ENGLAND A,SSOCIATION OF FIRE CHIEFS
fall, and .there was a remarkable accounting for missing persons. There was. only one
missing--a baby recorded out in H.olden. There were only about three unidentified;
so you can see how rapidly they got names and numbers together. As long as you
can balance that sheet--as I h~d to. tell some of .my men--that was the way we must be
guided in our work. Some companies, wanted to search one cellar hole after another
without anything definite to go on. You could search in .one cellar hole all night and
not be sure a person or a body was there.
By this time the last group of .distressed people hadi disappeared. They had been
absorbed into friendly homes, and thevarious organized group had taken care of them.
I heard the story from an employee of the Y. M. C. A. that they had spread mattresses
on the floor with blankets over a wide area of .the gym. No one ¯ came in. At least we
did have facilities., and they seemed to have been adequate to take care .of them that
first night.
That first night was just a beginning. It was just a stopping of the immediate
effects. When dawn ,came we really had our job in picking up the pieces. Of course,
I had all my firemen orr duty. There was a large ,fire station located near the devastated
~rea--the station from which the first piece had come. I used~ that as a headquarters
for ’as many as ten or ,twelve pieces, o,f fire apparatus. I used the same point for firemen
to report to who were unable to trace the location of their fire companies. The informati.on
was there as to where the various companies were from time to time and we
were able to, direct personnel. From this point I was able to direct apparatus from one
place to another.
I remember sendin~ a company from Assumption College-over to the housing project,
a distance of two miles, where they continued to do good work in an, other area.
I hadl been told there was a fire in the project. There was no fire of serious, consequence,
but they did put out a fire in one of the apartments.
I was. happy to be able, as so.on as possible, to distribute my .chief oNcers so that I
had one in each area to ,co-ordinate and work with me. Finally, when the darkness
came, gentlemen, that was the end of the immediate stopping process. I had a varied
experience from there . .on. I maintained--and am .still maintaining--an around-the-
clock radi,o-equipped engine company at what we call a field station, right out in the
open air in the heart .of the dlevastated area. Two engine companies iwork ther.e halfa-day
each, andtwo ,other engine companies work a half-a-fright shift each--to cover the
twenty,four,hour detail.
In the disaster, work a lot of hose was used. The damage to ~he department I have
estimated at between $25,000 and $3.0,000-.-.I have ordered three thousand feet of hose,
tw, o, and,a,half,inch; and seven hundred and tlfty:of the three-inch, just as a replacement--the
result . of.damage from nails and spikes and being run over. I figure I have
lost thirty tires, due to punctures. My me.chanics made repairs right .on the
field. We vcould take the tires ~ off the trucks and lug them to the nearest filling station,
and .call for ’them later. One particular engine company had three tires flat. I was
in fear of my own tires f’~tiling me, but Lord knows it was the etticiency of our maintenance
division which paid off. Twenty fire-alarm boxes w.ere damaged or destroyed.
I am ordering thirty thousand~ feet of aerial wire. Tools and equipment were taken off
the ladder trucks and used by people for a good purpose, but did_not always find their
way back t.o the apparatus.
And finally, I could go on ~nd on but I realize you understand quite a bit
..what happened, between the lines
r175