Last January, the Eastern Connecticut Fire School dedicated and opened a new building which features state-of-the-art training for both career and volunteer firefighters in Eastern Connecticut. The sixty year old building which previously housed the school had been described by Willimantic Fire Chief Marc Scrivener as being “beyond repair”. The Eastern Connecticut Firemen’s Training School has an interesting history. The idea for the school had been generated by Willimantic’s Deputy Fire Chief Albert Martin and was officially endorsed at a February, 1954 meeting of the Windham and Tolland Firemen’s Association at which each group gave $100 “to defray the preliminary expenses for such a school”. With efforts to establish the school in Willimantic spearheaded by Mayor Florimond Bergeron, Fire Chief J. Leo Rivard and Deputy Chief Martin, plans came to fruition quickly and the school opened in June, 1954 with a parade through Willimantic and ceremonies at the site. Thirty-five fire departments were registered in the school on opening day. Deputy Chief  Martin was named director of the school which had humble beginnings. On opening day, there was no building, only four pits which were used for training exercises. Opening day ceremonies included demonstrations  with firefighters extinguishing oil, gasoline, and car fires using water, powder and other chemicals and demonstrating their proper use. A few months later, with largely volunteer help, a 24x48 foot structure was erected, the first permanent building on the site. In today’s photo, Mayor Bergeron is seen looking at the building’s framework. A year after opening, the school hosted classes for hundreds of firemen from Windham, Tolland and New London Counties. Subsequently, thirty foot demonstration tanks, pieces of fire apparatus and other buildings were added to the site. The recent transformation is a dramatic juxtaposition of the school's humble beginnings and the state of the art school which will be host to both entry-level classes for East of the River volunteer firefighters, and advanced training for the more experienced. For questions or comments about this  week’s photo or article, please e-mail us at “threadcity@outlook.com”.

                                            
The picture on the right shows the burn pits at the Training School as they appeared for Opening Day ceremonies

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