The Glastonbury Fire Department would like to thank retired Chief Mario Accornero, retired Chief Bernard Dennler, Sr., retired Deputy Chief Donald "Pete" Cowles, retired Engineer William Bailey and retired Engineer Robert Harrington for their contributions in compiling much of the historical information about the Glastonbury Fire Department.

The Glastonbury Fire Department was formally established in 1943, when the town’s three independent fire departments where merged into one agency.  Prior to the merger, the Naubuc Fire Department provided protection for the northern section of Glastonbury, while the South Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department protected the southern section of town, which is also known as Nayaug, and the East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department served the eastern part of town.  Today the Glastonbury Fire Department maintains four fire stations.  The names of the three independent departments along with a fourth, known as Buckingham, still remain a strong part of our culture.

The following is an excerpt from the June 26, 2014 issue of the Glastonbury Citizen. It contains news of the Glastonbury Fire Department circa March, 1944.

"[During World War II, Norma Sestero wrote a monthly newsletter, "The Home Town News" which was distributed to nearly 1,000 Glastonbury service men and women in places all over the globe. The following is the second in a weekly series of excerpts from those newsletters. Norma, a longtime Hartford Times correspondent for Glastonbury, died in 2003 at age 92.]"

An innovation in the fire alarm system of the new town fire department has been put into effect by the Board of Fire Commissioners. A hook-up of sirens between the North and South end has been completed and henceforth all town residents will dial 500, in case of fire. A code system will be tried whereby the companies will be able to determine in what section the fire may be. For Co. 1, North end, there will be several short blasts, and for Co. 2, South end, two long blasts. Co. 3, East Glastonbury, is not yet connected with the alarm system and Co. 1 will take care of its calls for the present time.

By the way, Co. 3 answered its first call several weeks ago, put out a chimney fire in Angelo Finoche's house and now they're all puffed up on the way they handled the situation. The board has purchased a truck for them which will be reconditioned as a fire truck and will be equipped with pumps, booster tank, hose racks and other necessary fire equipment. Fire Commissioners are asking prices on a number of land sites in the South where a firehouse may be built sometime in the future...The department has received its first inhalator...

The following are links to the history of the individual fire departments and how the Glastonbury Fire Department evolved: 

• Naubuc Fire Department
• South Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department
• East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department
• Buckingham Fire Department