Retired firefighter recalls four decades on job

Cheshire ( AP) — There is panic in James Doherty’s blue eyes as he recalls his worst moment as a Cheshire firefighter — the day a colleague died answering a call.

A young firefighter riding outside a fire engine fell from the truck as it was taking a curve on West Main Street. As the young man lay on the ground, Doherty, riding in a separate car behind, didn’t know what had happened.

The 24-year old firefighter, William Grove II, the only town firefighter to perish in the line of duty, had red hair, like Doherty’s son, Jeffrey. It was just before Christmas in 1975 and firefighters were rushing to a routine call for a malfunctioning furnace, Doherty remembers, shaking his head at the senselessness of it all.

At 94, Doherty has gray hair and gray eyebrows. He no longer has the strength required to fight fires.

As the Cheshire Fire Department celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, Doherty is still a proud member, representing nearly six decades of department history, 27 of them as its building inspector.

The department is different from the one Doherty joined in 1954, much better equipped and better trained. At its core, however, the department remains largely the same. It still depends on men like Doherty— lifers, as men with 20 or more years of service are called. Some of them come from families with generations of lifers, fathers, uncles, nephews and grandsons.

Of 105 total members, 63 have served 20 years or more. The department also has about 20 junior firefighters, mostly Cheshire High School students, said Deputy Fire Chief Donn Youngquist.

Like many other departments manned by volunteers, Cheshire is facing challenges recruiting and keeping its members. Most residents work out of town and the time commitment required to be a firefighter has increased.

Some 400 hours of training are required to certify as a firefighter, and 1,000 hours to be an officer. In addition to responding to calls, firefighters train each Monday night for several hours.

The department began in 1912 with 27 men, who raised their own money to buy a chemical truck and a hand-drawn hook-and-ladder truck.

Doherty said he remembers going door to door to raise money for equipment when he joined in 1954. He was given no training, but was issued a dark rubber coat and rubber boots. He said only the lucky ones got new gear.

For Doherty and his wife, Fran, the department’s history is tied to their own lives. Doherty was 36 when he joined the department, a teacher by profession who grew up in Waterbury and later worked in the city.

“It was OK,” Fran said of her husband’s more than four decades in the department.

She remembered the time her husband stopped by a brush fire on their way to Saint Mary’s Hospital to deliver their third son.

She remembers the time she got a call from a police officer telling her that her husband was not breathing and rushing frantically to a the scene of a drowning. She said her husband was fine, but the little boy was not. Doherty had strained himself so much in the water looking for the boy that he was having trouble breathing.

In 1974, an 82- year- old woman died in a fire in her kitchen at Ridge View Terrace. The woman ran to her neighbor’s home to ask them to call the fire department. Instead of staying with the neighbor, the woman went back into her home. Doherty remembers walking up to the window of the home and seeing the woman “just lying there.” She later died.

He doesn’t know why he remembers the losses.

“You just do,” he said.