The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
BURRVILLE TO CLOSE
Members: Volunteer fire company’s diminished ranks forced decision
TORRINGTON >> The Burrville Volunteer Fire Department is expected to close in the coming weeks after more than seven decades of service to city residents.
President Don Balaski announced the closing in a letter he distributed Friday.
“It is with heavy hearts that we are forced to do this and want to thank everyone for their past support,” Balaski said in his letter.
The department will begin dissolving effective March 31, he said.
“The Burrville Volunteer Fire Department was established in 1941. Our goal was to provide our community with fire protection and any other support in times of need or emergency,” Balaski wrote. “Over the years, we have grown and we have shrunk. We prospered and we were squeezed during our years of existence.”
The department went from being the only fire protection for the citizens of Burrville to also assisting the city of Torrington, Balaski said.
“During the past couple of decades, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit, train and keep volunteer firefighters,” the letter continued. “We have reached the point where we can no longer provide the necessary services required by the great citizens of Burrville or the city of Torrington.”
Members of the department were called to attend a special meeting Thursday evening, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.
In a separate letter addressed to Mayor Elinor Carbone and the Board of Public Safety, Balaski wrote that department members voted to dissolve the corporation Thursday evening and asked what steps are required to end the department’s contract with the city.
Former Chief and life member of the department Jason Noad said Friday that department members had voted to close the department Thursday evening.
Current Burrville Chief Matthew Vogt could not immediately be reached for comment Friday, while firefighter Tobin Bernier referred comment to Vogt.
A voicemail message left with the department was not immediately returned Friday.
Torrington Fire Department Chief Gary Brunoli said recently that the number of volunteer firefighters had diminished in recent years, which has made it harder for those departments to respond to calls in a timely fashion.
Brunoli said Friday that he had not been informed that Burrville was planning to close, but that the department had stopped being called for service as of March 10, after he was told it had lost another member.
Mayor Elinor Carbone said Friday afternoon that she had not received official word that the department was to close, but had been sent a message that news was forthcoming.
Carbone, after receiving a letter from Balaski, said Friday evening that the closure of the volunteer department was sorrowful news for both members and the city as a whole.
“This is such a sad thing,” said Carbone.
As a 501c3, Carbone said that the Burrville corporation would have to dissolve and disperse its assets in accordance with the law, including providing its equipment to a “like-minded” charitable group.
The future of the land owned by the corporation, she said, will also have to be determined as it is dissolved.
The 0.82-acre lot at 2865 Winsted Road was last appraised at a value of $423,779 and assessed at a value of $296,650, according to city property records.