Connecticut Volunteer Fire Department Shuts Down

I live in this city.
I was a career firefighter in that city.
Of course I have friends within the career as well as the volunteer department.
But the safety of the citizens comes first.
 
It seems that monthly, around the country, volunteer departments are being shut down, or going out of business, or merging with other volunteer departments in an attempt to stay afloat, or transitioning to paid departments. The volunteer fire service in America continues to shrink.
 
There's a whole lot of what wasn't said that needs to brought out in the open. Wondering whose wallet just became fatter and heavier.
 
Thank you Pat (patrickfd), I was going to post that but you beat me to it.

However, I do have additional information to add.

Today Feb 11, '26 according to a local newspaper (The DAY) the headlines reads:
"Norwich repossesses fire trucks from Yantic volunteer fire department"

This happened around 1:40 pm today.
The Yantic Fire Apparatus, 3 Engines, 1 Rescue and 1 smaller Squad unit was parked outside the firehouse an hour before in anticipation of the removal.
The Norwich Fire Chief, with police and several public works employees removed all of the apparatus from the Yantic Firehouse.
 
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Something else, to the people who are from the area, have response times changed? Usually when firehouses close, response times increase.
 
Darrell said:
Something else, to the people who are from the area, have response times changed? Usually when firehouses close, response times increase.
Click to expand...
The video claims response times have gone down with the career members handling calls and an additional Engine now staffed.
 
Just from looking at Yantic's Facebook page they seemed to have been a thriving volunteer department, answering over 700 calls last year. There must be more to this story.
 
kidfrmqns said:
Just from looking at Yantic's Facebook page they seemed to have been a thriving volunteer department, answering over 700 calls last year. There must be more to this story.
Click to expand...

The video in reply # 8 explains the story.

It involves the command system.

There was an incident recently in which disagreements took place on the fireground.

Actually, the busiest of the five volunteer departments (East Great Plains FD) has already signed and agreed to this unified command system.
 
Hard to say exactly what’s going on and who’s right without some insider info. Chief seems decent but I’ve never seen him run a fire. City manager is a complete disaster and severely unprofessional.
 
A disagreement on the fireground? I am shocked...shocked!

I only heard the stories, but I would have loved to have seen the late Dick Hannon provide a critique, in person, to some hapless Assistant Chief about his fireground command decisions.
 
Any idea why Yantic is so opposed to the unified command agreement? What are they losing in this agreement that they're so afraid of giving up?
 
On Wednesday February 18, '26 four of the five volunteer fire departments in Norwich, Ct., have filed a lawsuit against the city, charging the City Manager John Solomone and Norwich City Fire Chief Samuel Wilson exceeded their authority in establishing the unified command policy putting Chief Wilson in charge.

The four volunteer fire departments that filed the lawsuit are, the Yantic Volunteer FD., the Taftville Volunteer FD, the Occum Volunteer FD, and the Laurel Hill Volunteer FD.

The fifth volunteer fire department, the East Great Plains Volunteer FD did NOT file the lawsuit and has accepted the unified command policy.

A look back.
The City of Stamford, Ct functionally unified its fire services and effectively moved away from a primarily independent volunteer system following a 2012 charter revision referendum which was later upheld by the state Superior Court in December 2013.
This created a single, unified fire department under one command
 
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