NEW BEDFORD, MA—Since 1980, retired and active firefighters from Station 6 on Purchase Street have gathered every few years to take group pictures along the staircase inside the fire house.
Hairstyles and fashions have changed between the framed photos, but the formation of firefighters along the stairs has remained constant.
Though the firefighters plan to continue the tradition, they posed along the Station 6 stairs for the last time. Next month, the station will close and the new South End Public Safety Center will open.
"It's sad," said firefighter Anthony Poente, who has worked at the station for 24 years. It's a place where many firefighters have lived and it's where he was when his sons were born.
Poente said while most retirees still live in the area, at least two made the trip from Florida for not just the photo, but also the "last hurrah" before the station closes.
"A building becomes a home to us"
"Some of the finest firefighters in the city of New Bedford came out of this station," said George Roy, who served as captain at the station from the 1980s until his retirement in 2004. "I feel sad. I think everybody here does. A building becomes a home to us. It's a place we could just be friends."
Roy, 76, said he could talk about all the fires they fought, and the heroics involved, but what sticks most with him is the friendships forged in Station 6 and the sacrifices each firefighter made to ensure the rest of the team made it home to see their families.
Usually, the retirees enjoy a big meal at the station before the photo, but due to COVID-19, they were limited to pastries.
While many retirees chatted, others perused a long table covered in old photos and memorial cards of firefighters who died. Some took photos with their phones while others reminisced and sought out faces in the staircase photos.
Ken Veary, 70, who served the department for 34 years (32 of which were at Station 6) said he had a lot of memories, many of which were marked by laughs and camaraderie.
Though there is some sadness in the station closure, he said overall they're a "pretty happy" group of people because they worked alongside family and helped people every day.
Family's history runs through station
Mark Pacheco, an active firefighter, has a long family history with Station 6. He first slid down the station's fire pole as a kid while visiting his father, Jesse Pacheco Jr., at work.
Sometimes the visits also promised candy and ice cream, Pacheco, 56, said.
"My mom would have to go to the desk and check in and after being familiar with the place I would literally run up the stairs, slide down the pole and then climb right back up the pole and slide down again," he said. "It was quite emotional when I was assigned here back in 2004... basically the only station I ever really knew."
His father was at the station for about 23 years, serving as a lieutenant on the ladder truck until 1993 when he passed away after a heart attack at the station following a call. He was 52 years old.
Pacheco, then 28 years old, previously worked as a commercial fisherman and said though he had toyed with the idea, it wasn't until his father passed away that he decided he would be a firefighter, too.
When he joined the station, he started on his father's apparatus, Ladder 3.
Station's immediate future
Roger Nadeau, a retired fire chief who served at Station 6 for a few years, said it was time for the firefighters to get a new station from the city. As for the future of the brick structure, built in around 1882, Nadeau said he'd like to see it turn into a museum (though he recognized that may be unlikely).
The building, which has housed transportation from the horse and buggy to the multi-ton fire engine and ladder trucks, will remain as a storage unit for the city, Poente said.
Thirty-two members currently serve at the station and while the move will be sad, Poente and Pacheco also said it'll be nice to be in a station with upgraded amenities like a new kitchen, a gym and cleaner systems for the firefighters' health.
It won't all be "out with the old, in with the new," though. Pacheco said they will bring many of the framed photos from over the decades to carry over the character, tradition and memories of the original fire house.
___
(c)2021 The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass.
Visit The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass. at www.southcoasttoday.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
