3 Questions for Fire Chief Bill Seward: Favorite Thing About Summer

Each week, North Branford Patch will be asking town officials three questions, including:

1. What's new in your office or department?
2. What is something residents should know?
3. What's your favorite (fill in the blank!)

This feature will not only help residents stay informed with , , , Police Chief Matthew Canelli and Fire Chief William Seward participating; but also let us get to know a little more about our town officials.

North Branford Patch: What's new in your department this week?
Seward: As of July 1, a new slate of Fire Officers began their term in . Elected by their peers, taking command of Company 1 as Captain is Rich Lennon who is a career firefighter-paramedic for the Town of Hamden. Supporting the Captain are 1st Lieutenant Jake Conway, 2nd Lieutenant Ken Ash, 1st Foreman Pete Stadolnik and 2nd Foreman William Seward, IV who is also a career firefighter-paramedic for the West Shore Fire District. 

During this week, members that have completed specialized training in technical rescue operations practiced rope rescue evolutions during their weekly drill at . Additionally, paramedics that have been trained in a new program to evaluate "fall victims needing assistance" began documenting root causes that may lead to improved home safety and clinical evaluations for underlying medical problems.

Furthermore, the town is in the midst of upgrading its which is being relocated to a permanent site within . This will permit instant activation and mobilization of town resources during extraordinary situations and improve local operations concurrent with federal incident management procedures.

North Branford Patch: What's something residents need to know?
Seward: North Branford residents should recognize that each fire station is unmanned and under normal conditions, members are not standing by awaiting alarms. Therefore, residents needing any type of fire, rescue, hazardous material or EMS response should not call any fire station. There is only one number to call during any perceived emergency–911. The North Branford Emergency Communications Center will dispatch the proper fire department assets to calls from the public. Attempting to call fire stations first will only delay our response and create a potentially dangerous situation for the public and responders.

North Branford Patch: What's your favorite thing about summer?
Seward: My favorite thing about summer is the amount of daylight available to work outdoors.

Stay tuned as other officials share their responses throughout the rest of the week.