June 2019

The Wakefield Fire Department responded to 322 emergency incidents during the month of June including 29 box alarms and 293 still alarms.

The department responded to one request for mutual aid during June to Reading. It received mutual aid one time in June from Lynnfield. A crew from Engine 1 under the direction of Acting Lieutenant Gary Hill assisted the Reading Fire Department at the scene of a 2-alarm house fire at 36 Lindsay Lane during the afternoon of June 30.

Firefighters under the command of Captain Thomas Purcell responded to a reported fire at the Colonial Point Apartments at 95 Audubon Road during the early morning of June 19. On arrival, firefighters found a heavy smoke condition in the third floor elevator lobby and laundry room. They quickly determined the source of the smoke to be coming from a burning laptop that had malfunctioned and exploded while being carried by a building occupant riding inside the elevator. The occupant exited the elevator on the third floor and brought the laptop into the laundry room. The fire was confined to the laptop with some minor heat damaged to some carpeting. Firefighters made sure that the fire was extinguished and vented the area of the thick acrid smoke created by the fire. There were no injuries to building occupants or any responding firefighters during this incident. The cause of the fire was traced to a replacement lithium battery that had just been installed in the laptop shortly before the fire. The battery was apparently not compatible with the model of laptop that it was installed in and overheated, causing the fire.

Department members assisted several boaters in distress on Lake Quannapowitt during the somewhat windy afternoon of June 15. Firefighters assisted occupants of an overturned catamaran right their vessel and bring it back to shore. They later returned and assisted a father and his two children in a canoe by towing the vessel back to the south end of the lake where it had been rented. The heavy wind conditions had blown the canoe into the rocks at Beebe’s Cove, preventing them from maneuvering the small craft.

All duty shifts continued their in-service business safety inspections and conducted the annual testing of the department’s fire hose during the month of June. The ladder truck as well as all of the department’s ground ladders were steam cleaned during June. Chief Sullivan participated in a disaster drill held by the Bear Hill Nursing Home on June 7. Wakefield firefighters participated in a joint active shooter drill with the Wakefield Police Department and Action Ambulance at the Hurd School during the evenings of June 10 and 17. All duty groups conducted a walk-thru of the commercial property at 360 Audubon Road during the month of June.

Firefighters washed their truck along with a second grade class at the Greenwood School on June 3 and several groups of kindergartners from the Dolbeare Elementary Schools on June 7. A group of citizens from Communitas visited Wakefield Fire Headquarters on June 17. Firefighters visited with preschoolers from the KinderCare Children’s Center on June 25.

Wakefield Fire Department Administrative Assistant Rosemary Dellanno retired from the department on June 28, 2019 after serving for more than 33 years with the department. Rosemary has in many ways become the face of the department. She is often the first person that the public encounters as she schedules and coordinates all of the administrative business services provided by the department. The entire department wishes Rosemary a long, healthy and happy retirement.

Incident Response Report

Fire Prevention Report