East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department

The East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department was established on September 24, 1942.  At that time, the Naubuc Fire Department's Chief Connery reached out to Harold Dennler asking if he could establish fire protection in the eastern section of town.  Chief Connery's call to Dennler was based on the escalation of World War II.

Dennler gladly took on the responsibility.  He mustered the required 32 members necessary to establish a department and received a pumper on a trailer from the federal government.  With the ingenuity of several of its members, along with the benevolence of the Matson Mills, the Landry Family and Norman Landry himself, the East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department acquired a second pump.  That second pump was mounted on a 1937 pick-up that had been donated.

East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department first stored its firefighting equipment in a garage owned by Leveret Weir on Fisher Hill Road.  Eventually, the equipment was moved down the road to a former machine shop in the Angus Park Mill, which is now owned by Quality Name Plate.  In 1943, the East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department was folded into the Glastonbury Fire Department, becoming the Glastonbury Fire Department's Company 3.

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.]

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...

In 1965, the Fire Commission, recognizing the significant growth in the eastern section of town, began preparations to incorporate a fourth fire station.  It was during this time-frame that the Fire Commission also recognized the need to relocate from the Angus Mill Park facility to a new station on Chestnut Hill Road.  As for the location of the fourth fire station, it was to be constructed at the intersection of Manchester Road and Hebron Avenue.

With a fourth station being established, the department also needed to reassign personnel and equipment within East Glastonbury.  Bernard Dennler, Sr., Harold Dennler’s son was appointed Captain of Company # 3 and William Bailey was named as the first Captain of the new fire station known as Company # 4.

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