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Date: 8/2/2022
PELHAM – Dennis Nazzaro, the new fire chief, is a hard core history buff and the newest member of the Historical Society. Now he wants to combine his two passions so everyone knows the history of local firefighting.
On Aug. 14 Nazzaro will coordinate an afternoon event at the firehouse, sponsored by the Historical Society, that’ll feature eyewitness accounts of fires and accidents from four decades of department leadership. Ray Murphy, chief until last May, will appear, along with the previous chief, Kenneth Gay. Murphy was scheduled to host the event in March 2021, during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, after it was canceled in 2019 due to weather.
“The Historical Society … they do a lot of different projects and talks about things,” Nazzaro said. “One of the things on their docket was a history of the Fire Department. That was one that they’ve been pushing off and pushing off, and I said, ‘I really want to do this one. I’m curious to know the history myself, being a history buff and new to town,’ so they arranged it.”
The afternoon event will begin with an introduction by David Boyden, vice president of the Historical Society. Boyden, a lifelong resident, will discuss how the department was founded in 1955, when the town had only a forest fire warden. The warden, Fred Shephard, became the first fire chief.
“The Historical Society tries to put on a program of interest to the people of Pelham once a month,” Boyden said, “usually about history…I thought the history of the Fire Department would be interesting.”
Nazzaro, the seventh fire chief in Pelham, will be in his element. His personal history in the fire safety field began when he was a boy growing up in New Jersey. His first home stood across the street from a firehouse. He ran across the blacktop and hung out with the firefighters, who taught him tips and facts about fighting fires, and eventually took him on calls. By the time he was 18 he thought he knew everything there was to know about fighting fires.
The new chief said, “They took me under their wing like a mascot.”
The family man is a full-time firefighter for the City of Northampton, with a degree in fire science and 18 years on the job. Nazzaro found a house in Pelham he and his wife really liked, so they bought it and recently moved east out of Huntington. They have two children.
Nazzaro was sworn in last May, when Murphy stepped down after 18 years as chief. The new chief has two priorities to address in the department. Membership has fallen, recruitment is a top goal, as is refitting the department without breaking the town’s bank account.
“A lot of our equipment is coming up on end of life,” Nazzaro said. “In a small town like Pelham, where we don’t have a very large tax base, we’re kind of stuck at the mercy of what we can get from the town, or grants. There’s a lot of grants out there (and) we’re going to put a lot of work into seeing if we can’t get some.
The other priority is warm bodies.
“Recruitment number one,” Nazzaro said. “We are kind of a small department. We are desperately seeking help, so recruitment is our number one priority right now, as well as making sure our equipment is safe for our members.”
Nazzaro won’t have much time to sit down, being Pelham’s chief and a full-time firefighter too. In the weeks ahead he’ll be savoring the stories coming on Aug. 14.
“Chief Murphy will be there, then the chief before him, and a bunch of townspeople who have some stories and anecdotes about Pelham Fire,” Nazarro said. “The new members will be there to hear some old stories, then we’ll conclude with a little tour of the fire station.”
Pelham Fire Department: Past and Present will take place Aug. 14 at 1 p.m. in the Community Hall across from the fire station.