Wilbraham Fire Department receives state honor

Date: 11/15/2011

Nov. 14, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

WILBRAHAM — The Wilbraham Fire Department will be honored on Nov. 30 for its efforts in the wake of the June 1 tornado.

“It gives me great pleasure to inform you that the Wilbraham Fire Department will receive a Fire Marshal’s Award at the 2011 Firefighter of the Year award ceremony,” Stephen Coen, state fire marshal, said in a letter to Fire Chief Francis Nothe. “Your department will be honored along with eight other departments for outstanding rescue and recovery efforts during the aftermath of the [EF-3] tornado which touched down in Western Massachusetts on June 1.”

The ceremony is slated to take place at the Hanover Theater in Worcester at 2 p.m.

Nothe was quick to point to the fact that other departments helped Wilbraham in the hard work of recovering from the storm while maintaining public safety.

“It’s certainly a great honor to be singled out,” he said. “But it’s not just us. It’s also the men and women of the mutual aid departments who aided us day after day.”

Board of Selectmen Chair Patrick Brady praised the department’s efforts in what has been a difficult year for the town in terms of emergency situations.

“Unlike other towns, the fire chief is the head of emergency response and I view this as long overdue recognition for the work he and the department do,” he said. “It’s been a heck of a year in having to deal with five major incidents. We had the tornado, the microburst, Hurricane Irene, a very difficult winter storm early in the year and the October Nor’easter.

“There were no deaths and no serious injuries through any of that and a lot of that is due in part to Fran Nothe’s leadership,” he concluded.

Nothe said weather events such as a tornado are tough to prepare for, but his department does well in constantly re-assessing its needs in order to maintain readiness.

“It’s difficult to prepare for things like that, but we have pre-established mutual aid pacts in Hampden County and the statewide,” he said, “Other than that, you try to do the best you can with what you have and constantly prioritize and re-prioritize your emergency management system.”

The expansion of the main fire station on Boston Road will help the department continue to improve its ability to be ready to serve the community, Nothe added.

“Having a modern building will definitely improve our state of readiness,” he said, explaining the new facility will allow the department to keep vital equipment indoors with better means with which to maintain it.