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News From Around Hartford County

Wow, can you believe it’s that time again! The Hartford County Annual Dinner will be held on Wednesday, June 21, 2006 at the Farmington Club, 162 Town Farms Rd., Farmington, CT. A social hour will begin at 6:30pm with dinner to follow. Tickets are on sale at the cost of $20 each and can be obtained from any board member or by calling me, John Coelho (860) 793-0871 or my cell # (860) 573-5641. Our guest speaker for the County Annual meeting will be Stephen Coulon. He is the Training Officer of the NEW YORK FIRE DEPARTMENT. His presentation will be on FIRE APPARATUS DRIVER SAFETY. A power point presentation with plenty of pictures.

The Connecticut Fire Photographers Association will be holding their Annual Firematic Flea Market and Photo Show on Sunday, April 30, 2006 from 10:00 A.M.—3:00P.M. This year’s show will be held at THE HARTFORD, SIMSBURY, CT. The Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department will also be hosting an Antique Fire Apparatus Display. We invite you to participate in the Firematic Flea Market. If you have any questions or need more information, please contact Ken Beliveau at kfbct58@aol.com.

The Wilson Fire Company again is sponsoring a bus trip to the Fire Expo in Harrisburg PA. This year the trip will be on Friday May 19th . The bus will leave Station 700 at 5AM sharp and is expected to return between 11PM and midnight. For those who have not attended in previous years the Fire Expo is made up 550 booths and over 225 emergency vehicles will be on display. There is a huge assortment of goods to view and purchase, from the newest concepts in fire suppression to the latest release of fire department collectibles. The cost of the trip is $60 which includes the bus, coffee and pastry on departure, admission to the show and dinner with beverages before the return trip to Windsor. There is a limit of 50 seats and tickets will be on a first come first paid basis. If you are interested please call Ken Rosol@ 209-9195 or Paul Goldberg@ 285-1983.

The Board of Directors would like to ask all County Fire Chiefs to take the time to speak to their Fire Chaplain to see if they would be interested in becoming the Hartford County Fire Chaplain. One of their focuses would be to work with the other Fire Chaplain in the County in hosting the Annual Hartford County Memorial Service which is held in October. If anyone is interested and needs more information on this position please contact me, John Coelho by e-mail johnsechcfep@yahoo.com fax number 860 747-2137 or by dropping a line to PO Box 447 Plainville, CT. 06062.

THE ANDY FLANAGAN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP committees has recently announced the names of the recipients for this years scholarship.  From the Hartford County alone there were five winners, but

CONGRATULATIONS are in order to EVERYONE.

Robert C. Babcock Vernon,CT.             Albert J. Bassett Norwalk, CT.            Eric Borden Torrington, CT.

Nicholas Didelot   Stamford, CT.           Jeffrey Duncan Stamford, CT.              Eric Heath Southington, CT.

Mark Hilpert   Torrington, CT.                John D. Leahey   Suffield, CT.             Matthew Perreira Vernon, CT.

Keith Richards Mystic, CT.                   Jacqueline Rouleau Bolton, CT.           Donald Zession East Granby, CT.

An additional Scholarship was awarded by the CT. Fire Instructors.  Kenneth Hanks Naugatuck, CT.

From The Desk of the Secretary: John Coelho

To all County Chiefs, Training Officers and House Captains, If there are any changes or information about your department that needs sharing, please let me know ASAP, so that I can include it in the next print of the Hoseline.  If there has been a line of Duty Death, a department member has answered his or hers last alarm, please let me know as soon as possible so that I can make sure that their name is added to the list and not forgotten at the Annual Hartford County Memorial Service which is held in October during National Fire Prevention Week.  Also if someone is sick or in the hospital please forward me their name so it can be read off at the board meetings and plan meetings.

Our website at www.hcfep.org is always adding new information and by browsing around you can find interesting tidbits and other sites that might grab your curiosity.  This month’s poem is one that I found and would like to share it with you.  This poem The Littlest Fireman I would like to send out to all to read again I ran this about two years ago and would to share it with you.

The Littlest Fireman

In Phoenix, Arizona, a 26-year old mother stared at her 6 year old son, who was dying of terminal leukemia. Although her heart was filled with sadness, she also had a strong feeling of determination. Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up and fulfill all his dreams. Now that was no longer possible. The leukemia would see to that. But she still wanted her son’s dreams to come true. She took her son’s hand and asked “Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up? Did you ever dream and wish what you would do with your life?” Mommy," I always wanted to be a fireman when I grew up.” Mom smiled back and said, “Let’s see if we can make your wish come true.” Later that day she went to her local fire department in Phoenix, Arizona where she met Fireman Bob, who had a heart as big as Phoenix. She explained her son’s final wish and asked if it might be possible to give her six-year son a ride around the block on a fire engine. Fireman Bob said “Look, we can do better than that, If you’ll have your son ready at seven o’clock Wednesday morning, we’ll make him an honorary fireman for the whole day. He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards! And if you’ll give us his sizes, we’ll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat-not a toy one-with the emblem of the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots. They’re all manufactured right here in Phoenix, so we can get them fast”. Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy, dressed him in his fire uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed to the waiting hook and ladder truck. Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven. There were several fire calls in Phoenix that day and Billy got to go on all the calls. He rode in the different fire engines, the paramedic’s van, and even the fire chief’s car. He was also videotaped for the local news program. Having his dream come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, it so deeply touched Billy that he lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital. Then she remembered the day Billy had spent as a fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and asked if it would be possible to send a fireman in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition. The chief replied," We can do better than that. We’ll be there in five minutes. Will you please do me a favor? When you hear the sirens screaming and see the lights flashing, will you announce over the PA systems that there is not a fire? Its just the fire department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his room? About five minutes later a hook and ladder arrived at the hospital and extended its ladder up to Billy third floor open window, 16 firefighters climbed up the ladder into Billy’s room. With his mother’s permission they hugged him and held him and told him how much they loved him. With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire chief and said “Chief, am I really a fireman now?” “Billy you are. And the Head Chief, Jesus is holding your hand,” the chief said. With those words, Billy smiled and said, “I know He’s been holding my hand all day, and the angels have been singing. “He closed his eyes one last time.

Upcoming Meetings And Other Events

Sunday, April 23rd 2006 Tunxis Hose Station School Street Unionville, CT	Tunxis Hose Company #1 Presents Their Annual Family Breakfast 7:00 am - 12:00pm Adults: $6.00 Seniors: $5.00 Children: $4.00 (Under 12)
April 30th 2006	Connectictu Fire Photographers Association 2006 Firematic Flea Market & Photo Show and Antique Apparatus Show sponsored by the Simsbury Volunteer Fire Department. Held at the Hartford Insurance, Hopmeadow Street, RT 10 and 202, Simsbury, CT
May 17th 2006	Bradley International Fire Department Station One Firehouse Rd Windsor Locks, CT
May 19th 2006	Fire Expo Harrisburg, PA
June 21st 2006	Hartford County Fire Emergency Plan Annual Dinner Meeting Farmington Club, Farmington, CT.

The meetings are always held on the 3rd Wednesday of the month and start at 19:00 hours.

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Copyright, 2006 - Hartford County Fire Emergency Plan