{"id":165,"date":"2014-10-29T16:20:22","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T20:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/?page_id=165"},"modified":"2014-10-29T16:27:46","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T20:27:46","slug":"history-ashtonberkeley","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/?page_id=165","title":{"rendered":"History-Ashton\/Berkeley"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: Marcia Green<\/em><\/p>\n

It was just after the turn of the 20th century when the villages of both Berkeley and Ashton each secured charters and began the process of collecting equipment enough to call themselves fire districts.<\/p>\n

Almost from the start there was talk of merging the two districts, but it wouldn\u2019t happen until 1992 when the two created the single Cumberland Fire District.<\/p>\n

These villages were desperate for fire protection in 1899 when the Pawtucket Times reported the Lonsdale Mill was willing to contribute \u201cliberally\u201d for evening protection to supplement its well trained fire brigades of the mills.<\/p>\n

By 1902, a news story described an Ashton district that \u201cis fairly equipped and it is believed by the fire wardens that it is much better prepared to meet emergencies than any village in the town outside of the Valley Falls fire district.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town has furnished an abundance of fire hydrants, the district has a hose reel, 65 feet of hose, two nozzles and the customary paraphernalia of a hose company. It is believed that under ordinance conditions at least two streams of water can be put on any fire and possibly more.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year later came this story about adjacent Berkeley: \u201cThe recently organized fire district for the village of Berkeley will meet again tomorrow evening in the Berkeley Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the last meeting of the organization there has been a fire of serious import in the village and this fact will no doubt act as an incentive toward the speedy erection of the hose house and the equipment of the building with the suitable fire fighting apparatus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reference was to April of 1904, when a brush fire came within an acre of burning St. Joseph\u2019s Church \u201chad it not been for the timely arrival of the hose wagon, a whole square, consisting of the church and some seven acres\u201d would have been lost.<\/p>\n

An early news article notes: \u201cIt was proposed some months ago to combine the Ashton and Berkeley districts but for several reasons this combination is not likely to be formed. Many of the taxpayers of both districts believe this would be an economical plan in the long run but the difficulty of inducing Ashton and Berkeley people to combine on anything has stood in the way as it probably has for some years.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so they remained apart as friendly rivals, according to former Ashton Chief Joseph \u201cCoke\u201d Martel, except at musters when competition was fierce.<\/p>\n

It would be the Berkeley Fire District that would take charge in two of the town\u2019s most celebrated fires, the 1950 Monastery fire and the 1976 Peterson-Puritan explosion.<\/p>\n

And it was the Ashton village that for decades accepted 24\/7 responsibility for running the rescue squad with volunteers who went to bed with their pants hung on the bedpost and a Plectron emergency receiver not far from their pillows.<\/p>\n

Thomas Malloy Sr. and former Chief Martel tell the story of the dedication that required.<\/p>\n

Malloy, whose dad founded the Scott Road oil company, says back in the mid-century years they were trained to stop the bleeding, treat for shock, and basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation. But mostly they were trained to move quickly and head toward the hospital.<\/p>\n

Martel, who lived two miles from the station on Scott Road, said the nighttime rescue\u2019s \u201cpretty good\u201d response time was 25 minutes considering the time it took to dress and drive to the station.<\/p>\n

He says he preferred to take the role of driver and \u201chand the others the bandages.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled the musters at St. John Vianney Church and ham and bean suppers at the Ashton school.<\/p>\n

Says Malloy, \u201cThe Fire Department was like our boys\u2019 club. A gathering spot for most of the boys of the village.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they\u2019d play some baseball or shoot hoops behind the station \u2013 the old one that sat closer to the street \u2013 and hope for a brush fire.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Conway, who was raising eight children in a house across the street, \u201cand was home 99 percent of the time,\u201d got the phone calls and sounded the siren to call the volunteers.<\/p>\n

At first, she had to get over to the station \u2013 not always easy with little ones \u2013 but later a button was installed in her home right by her phone, Malloy recalled.<\/p>\n

The first ones at the station asked her for the address and wrote it on a board for the others.<\/p>\n

Malloy, 74, said those who worked in town responded regularly to daytime calls \u2013 he along with Kenny Rowbottom, the photographer, Ray Potter, the insurance man, and some employed at the Fiberglas mill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just liked the excitement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Every spring, he said, there would be a brush fire at the Monastery. \u201cAlways the second week of April when the kids were out of school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The monks would help fight it, all the while maintaining their vow of silence.<\/p>\n

He recalls merger efforts back in the 1950s and says they failed \u201cmainly over who\u2019s going to be chief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retired Berkeley Chief Bob Joly may be the most outspoken opponent of the current merger plan in town. He\u2019s calling it a \u201cPandora\u2019s box\u201d and questioning the role of the Fire Committee since the new chief will lead the department. He likens it to creating a committee to oversee Police Chief John Desmarais.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing complicated about running a fire department,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

He was Berkeley\u2019s chief from 1968 to 1988, taking over a department he describes as \u201ca zoo. A country club with a $1,100 budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joly, with a Marine Corps background, says initially, \u201cThe alarm would go off and nobody would show up. So I started recruiting and the first thing you know we have 15 or 16 volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joly says Berkeley had the town\u2019s first ladder truck, \u201cpurchased by the district with the lowest income,\u201d he says, through a lease.<\/p>\n

It was Joly who gave the stations the numbers still in use today \u2013 Valley Falls is Station 1, Berkeley Station 2, Ashton Station 3, Cumberland Hill Station 4 and North Cumberland Station 5.<\/p>\n

Recalling the Peterson-Puritan fire of 1976, he says \u201cit was a very dangerous fire with 5-gallon drums exploding 100 feet into the air. There was a tank farm in the back of the property. If it caught fire, it could have leveled half of Berkeley.<\/p>\n

He recalls the \u201cnasty cold\u201d and the call from Providence\u2019s mayor, Vincent Cianci, asking what he needed. Joly told him air packs for the firefighters and Cianci arrived with them by helicopter, says Joly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: Marcia Green It was just after the turn of the 20th century when the villages of both Berkeley and Ashton each secured charters and began the process of collecting equipment enough to call themselves fire districts. Almost from the start there was talk of merging the two districts, but it wouldn\u2019t happen until 1992 when the two created the … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"template-layout-sidebar-content.php","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-165","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cumberlandfire.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}