Mar. 14—DANBURY — Years of work to consolidate seven of the city's 12 volunteer fire companies will be recognized and finalized Wednesday during a ceremony at Danbury City Hall.
In 2019, the Padanaram Hose, Water Witch Hose, Germantown Volunteer Fire and Beaver Brook Fire companies consolidated into Battalion 31 and the Wooster Hose, Citizens Hose and Phoenix Hose companies consolidated into Battalion 19 the following year. Now, the consolidations have been made official through city code.
"Talk of consolidation wasn't new, but it had sat dormant, and we came together as a volunteer fire department several years ago to really pursue it," said Battalion 31 President Frank Salvatore Jr., citing dwindling volunteer numbers as one driver of consolidation.
With volunteers "in scarce supply" for years, Salvatore said Danbury's volunteer companies had been competing for membership.
"Instead of fighting for members, the seven companies as two battalions can reap the benefits of membership," he said. "One could say the battalions are in conflict with each other. Yeah, there's going to be some overlap — but the beautiful thing is we talk to and work with each other."
Salvatore said consolidating the companies also comes with training-related benefits.
"The firefighters now have multiple trucks that they can learn and respond on," he said. "It gives members the ability to work on other apparatus and makes being a volunteer firefighter more interesting."
What to do with vacated stations?
In addition to relieving the city of costly maintenance of the volunteer fire company stations, the consolidation opens the door to other potential uses for some of the properties.
Salvatore said there are two categories of volunteer fire companies in Danbury — city companies and town companies — which date back to when there were designated town and city sections of Danbury.
Since Padanaram Hose, Citizens Hose, Phoenix Hose, Water Witch Hose and Wooster Hose were originally city-owned, Salvatore said their stations will return to the city of Danbury. What's done with the properties after that will be up to the city.
"In the coming months, we will evaluate each building and order appraisals for these locations," Mayor Dean Esposito said Monday. "Following that, we will work with the City Council on the future of these buildings."
It may be some time before any changes come to the fire station properties as some are still being used by the battalions as they work to establish "unified buildings," Salvatore said.
With a yet-to-be-determined headquarters, Battalion 19 is currently operating out of the Wooster Hose, Citizens Hose and Phoenix Hose firehouses.
"As of now, all three of the buildings are owned by the city of Danbury," Battalion 19 Chief Chris DiMauro said. "We're operating as a battalion, as we have been since 2020, but we're operating out of all three stations until we find ourselves a permanent home."
While Battalion 31 has made the old Germantown Volunteer Fire Company station its headquarters, Salvatore said it's keeping a tanker and engine at Beaver Brook and having its squad respond from the old Water Witch station on Locust Avenue until the Germantown station is expanded.
"We've already gone through the city process and are waiting for permits to build an addition onto the back of 36 Germantown Road so that we can move all of the fire companies into that one headquarters," he said.
Years-long process
After presenting the idea to the Danbury City Council in 2017, Salvatore said it became evident that only seven of the 12 companies wanted to proceed with consolidating.
Four of the companies came together in 2018 to form Battalion 31, which held its first organizational meeting in March 2019. The following month, the state officially recognized the battalion as a business unit.
Battalion 19 followed suit soon after, holding its first official meeting and receiving state recognition in early 2020.
"Both battalions went on to get recognition from the IRS as 501(c)(3), so we are tax exempt charitable organizations," Salvatore said.
After that, offficials got to work on Danbury's code of ordinances.
"In 2020, we started working with the mayor and some city councilmen on the recognition of the battalions, which was officially adopted by the City Council in December 2022," Salvatore said.
Wednesday's 6 p.m. ceremony will make everything "official," including the fact that the volunteer firefighters "will no longer be members of their original companies," Salvatore said.
Salvatore and DiMauro said they're proud of what Danbury's volunteer fire companies have accomplished and look forward to the ceremony.
"Battalion 19 and Battalion 31 have been working very hard to get to where we are now to serve the city of Danbury much more efficiently," DiMauro said. "It's an exciting time for everyone."
Although some people are not happy about the consolidation, Salvatore said it was done with the best interest of the city and its residents in mind.
"Consolidation might be bittersweet with the closing of the seven individual organizations, but we rise as stronger organizations," he said. "That's a benefit to the city of Danbury and every single person in the volunteer fire department, who share the goal of serving the city and do so willingly and with pride."
___
(c)2023 The News-Times (Danbury, Conn.)
Visit The News-Times (Danbury, Conn.) at www.newstimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
