December 2018

The Wakefield Fire Department responded to 301 emergency incidents during the month of December including 38 box alarms and 263 still alarms.

The department responded to three requests for mutual aid during December, once each to Lynnfield, Stoneham and Reading. It received mutual aid only once in November from Lynnfield. A crew from Engine 1 led by Lieutenant Cliff Silva covered the South Lynnfield fire station during the afternoon of December 10. A crew from Engine under Lieutenant Joseph Albert covered Reading fire headquarters early Christmas morning during a structure fire in that community. Firefighters from Engine 2 under the command of Lieutenant Sean Curran covered Stoneham Fire Headquarters during a fire in that community during the afternoon of December 28.

Firefighters under the command of Captain Paul Pronco responded to the Irving/Blue Canoe service station at 448 Salem Street during the morning of December 21 for a reported fuel spill. Upon arrival, they found that a vehicle had driven away from the fuel pump with the hose still attached spilling approximately 25 gallons of gasoline in the process. Irving employees turned off the pumps while firefighters blocked off local storm drains and soaked up the spilled fuel with an absorbent material. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection responded and Irving retained a licensed environmental contractor to clean up the spill and the fuel that entered the storm drains. The quick actions of firefighters averted a much more serious incident involving a fire or explosion from occurring and limited the extent of environmental contamination from the released spill.

The Wakefield Fire Department welcomed two new firefighters in December. Recruit Firefighters Sean Gill of Water Street and Patrick Farrell of Reynolds Road in Wakefield were both sworn in at a brief ceremony at the Public Safety Building on December 19. The two recruits will be part of the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy Recruit Training Class 271, which started its 10-week training program on December 31. This class is scheduled to graduate on March 8, 2019. Firefighters Gill and Farrell will then train locally with the department for several weeks before being assigned to a group. The department welcomes Sean and Patrick and looks forward to working with them upon their graduation.

All department groups conducted quarterly fire inspections of all school building, nursing homes, hotels and boarding houses during the month of December. The Fire Prevention Bureau continues to the monitor many construction projects in town. Building construction at 3 Bennett Street and 640 Main Street is progressing well. The buildings at 27 and 37 Water Street continue to undergo renovations to convert the upper floors into apartments. All duty groups completed their allotted on-going Emergency Medical Training during December.

A Tiger cub den from Cub Scout Pack 722 visited Wakefield Fire Headquarters on the evening of December 13.

Incident Response Report

Fire Prevention Report