Another overseas house-Grand Cayman

This past week I was able to get shots of another firehouse in Grand Cayman, this one is closest to the airport. These photos were done on the fly, as of course there isn't really any space to pull over in to get shots of it. 

Unfortunately, no trucks outside on the day we traveled by this house, but sadly, I got to take a few  shots of a firehouse at work at our resort this past week. A newlywed husband and wife had gone snorkeling, with tragic results. I learned today that the wife passed away, even after heroic efforts on the part of the resort guests and the firehouse rescue squads to revive her. A sad day on the East End. I chose not to publish any photos of the rescue efforts out of respect for the families, but instead photographed the trucks at the resort, and helped to distract other children on the beach by taking them to go look at the firetrucks. 

Firehouses Abroad

Hi blog followers! It's been awhile but you know how it is-life moves pretty fast and sometimes it is hard to keep up with things. I recently was able to enjoy a family vacation abroad in Grand Cayman, somehow with all of the sun and beautiful views I found a few moments to stop and visit briefly one of the three firehouses that are located on the island. 

This particular firehouse is the Frank Sound Fire Station, and happily the trucks were out when I stopped by.

Left side view of the station below. I think we parked illegally on the side of the road here to get this shot. 

Below a closeup of one of the trucks, here is Rescue 2

Loved walking inside the bays to spot this.

The crew on duty inside were welcoming, and as they didn't have a patch on hand, they very generously gave me one of their older firehouse shirts to take home with me. Thank you to the guys there-it was nice of you and I was thrilled to have it (by the way, it fits perfectly!) 

Smiling firehouse crew-who wouldn't be happy to work on one of the most beautiful islands in Cayman?

A fantastic quick visit-I only wish I had more time to stop at the other two firehouses while I was on the island. 

But, the sun and sand was calling us to head north to Rum Point.

One of the most photographed docks on Grand Cayman-it is easy to see why everyone loves to take photos here.

Interstate 91 Corridor Run- Part Two

    Continuing northbound on Interstate 91, the next stop was in the town of Greenfield. This firehouse is pretty large, and has some great details to it as well. There is a large firefighters memorial on the left side of the firehouse-with some great artwork. I was told by one of the firemen that the eagle originally was holding the flag until the typical New England weather took its toll on it, so the design was altered a bit.

 

Looking at the firehouse from the front of the building, I did do a little "Wow" when I saw all the details I wanted to photograph, and spent some time there trying to get the right shot. The weather wasn't making me too happy for shooting conditions, but I did the best with what I had. 

                                                       

Luckily I was also able to get some shots of the trucks here too.   

    

The original bell for the firehouse is on display at one of the local banks in town, and the firehouse uses the bell tower now to put their Christmas tree in during the holidays. I was told that the firehouse "sister" station is in Palmer or Longmeadow-the fireman wasn't positive which one, so it will be interesting to see where the other location is. The station originally had arched doors on the firehouse, that opened up in three different sections, that were removed for the more modern looking and more useful doors, the old doors are being used in a previous firefighters barn now. 

After Greenfield, it was off to the town of Turners Falls, where the station is located on Turnpike Road.

The town also shares space with the Montague Police Department, and has a memorial outside for the firefighters as well.

         

After that, it was back on the interstate to head north to Northfield, a small town just northeast of Greenfield.

The firehouse here is located right on Main Street in the center of town, and luckily there were no Memorial Day parades going on today, unlike the last weekend when we attempted to go visit it.

            Since the firehouse was pretty quiet, we backtracked over to the interstate again, and began our trip down the highway on the west side. The first stop was in the town of Bernardston, where a quick slice of pizza was obtained at Antonio's Pizza in the center of town, almost across the street from the firehouse

      There is a nice little memorial

      outside this firehouse as well

                                     

Continuing south down the corridor, we came to the town of Leyden, after a fun-filled five miles down a remote dirt road-thanks to my GPS for taking us the "back way" where we lost satellite and phone service for most of it. The bright side is that we had to stop about a mile away from the station to help a turtle cross the road to the swamp. Boy for a turtle it did move pretty quickly when I approached it.

The firehouse here in Leyden also is located next to the town hall, as well as the highway department. There were a few trucks outside, which thrilled me as I hadn't seen any since our visit to Greenfield.

      After Leyden, we headed towards the town of Conway. Conway is located about ten minutes west of the interstate, and is a nice scenic drive through the hills, passing farms and rivers along the way. The firehouse is located north of the town center, and shares space with the rest of the town departments.

       The last stop of the day was in the town of Ashfield, where the firehouse has a pretty cool logo as well.

         

     A visit to Ashfield wouldn't be complete without stopping by the lake, where the popular Ashfield Lake House is located as well. The water is simply beautiful here.

                 

  

Firefighter's Challenge

I wanted to share some links to local videos of the Firefighter's Cold Water Challenge that has been heating up (well its not really that warm but quite the opposite) in Western Mass in the past month. What is this challenge all about?
     Local firehouses are challenging each other in some friendly competition to raise money mostly for the National Fallen Firefighter's Foundation. Some of the firehouses are raising money for their local Relay For Life teams, and other charities as well. Basically, what happens is that one department calls on another department, or individuals within departments, to meet their challenge within 48 hours or pay up.
    Wonderful idea for these charities, and the rivalry is well, heating up. In a cold way. 

Enjoy!

Most recently, the video from the town of Easthampton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJBq16KeHjI

                                                                         

Chesterfield Fire Department

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpA1es6ALXQ

Goshen Fire Department

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUqBN49qan8

Fireground 360- WMass first responder community-this one is pretty funny-with the bloopers in the beginning of the video and involves a "hostage" in the challenge

http://vimeo.com/97479697

Bernardston Fire Department-note this is from a personal facebook page, so hopefully the settings will be on "public" viewing status

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10202096147267245

 I will add more videos to this post as soon as the challenges are accepted and become available online for viewing.

Interstate 91 Corridor Run

Today was an early morning start, in the hopes of avoiding the predicted rain showers for mid-afternoon. The plan was to go up on side of the I-91 corridor and down the other, shooting photos along the way.

       

The first stop of the day was in the town of Hatfield. It is supposedly located on Main Street but not really. It is behind the town office building, which is on Main Street, but the driveway access to the firehouse is actually on the next side street. Thanks Google Maps for that one. It also shares space with the town's police department as well.

After Hatfield, it was off to the town of Sunderland. You would think that the firehouse would be close to the center of the town, but instead it is in the midst of fields about a few miles outside of town on River Road

View of Mt Sugarloaf from Sunderland firehouse

The firehouse in Sunderland also houses the police department for the town, and is one of the firehouses in Western Mass that also has one of the original fire bells out front.

Sunderland firehouse bell

                                                                                                                                                                                                    

I must admit I am partial to this firehouse simply because of the mountain views all around it.

            Backtracking across the interstate again-lack of proper planning in the first stages of this trek, driving along the back roads only the locals know to the town of Whately.  Just a simple firehouse here, no frills but it gets the job done.         

                                    

                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

     The next stop was to the town of Deerfield, which apparently serves both Old, South, and the village of Deerfield. Quite a large area to cover in my opinion, but there is a large new firehouse on Greenfield Road so it seems that it works. 

The large bay doors for the trucks are on both sides of the firehouse, quite a large multipurpose building. Note the fire marshall's truck outside.

                    

      

The firehouse here has a great stone

 dedicated to those who have gone before. 

       It wasn't easy to photograph due to the stone's 

       reflective nature but I tried valiantly to time

       the shot with the traffic light behind me.

After Deerfield, it was off to the town of Montague via Route 5. This sign is a local landmark for those who have lived in the area for a long time.  The unique message hopefully makes people remember to look and slow down when they see horses.

The Montague firehouse is also on the relatively newer side, and is located on Old Sunderland Road. 

This firehouse also has bay doors that can be accessed from both sides of the building, making it easy for crews to get in and out.

                                                                                                

I was really impressed with the detail work on this stone outside the firehouse. The color engraving really made it "pop" out in vivid detail.

On the way out of Montague, I just had to make a stop and photograph the river. The town bike path runs almost parallel to the river, and leads into the town's Unity Park. Full playground, climbing wall, exercise bikes are located here, and looks like a great spot for a picnic. 

View from Unity Park

Of course, I had to stop and photograph the local geese too.

More to come in a later entry as this post is already getting too long for my liking. Stay tuned!

Hilltown Firehouses

     Today I was able to hit some what we in WMass call the "hilltowns" for some photos. We started off in the town of Southampton, where the firehouse is located on College Highway. For those not familiar with that name, it is otherwise designated by the state as Route 10. The firehouse here has one paid chief, and the rest of the firefighters are all volunteer. Unfortunately, none of the trucks were out at the time so we didn't stay long after taking a few shots.

     After backtracking a little bit, we headed northwest to the town of Westhampton. This is a great drive along the back way from College Highway along Pomeroy Meadow road towards Route 66 and the town.

Nothing but fields along the way to Westhampton

You can also see some horses and livestock along the way!

 The firehouse here in Westhampton is also a volunteer firehouse, located on Stage Road. The building also houses their other public safety departments for the town, another multipurpose building of many I have seen during my travels so far. 

Westhampton Firehouse

Huntington Firehouse

 We continued up Route 66 and headed towards the town of Huntington, where this firehouse is also an "on call" but paid! station. When we got close to the station, a couple of the trucks were near to the town center on a call, and unfortunately we weren't in a great part of the road to stop and take a live action shot of the team working. We continued on to the firehouse and shot photos there, hoping that the trucks would be able to return while we were visiting, but luck wasn't in our favor on this today. We continued north towards the Knightville Dam, hoping to stop and photograph it as well, but missed the turn to the dam. The road is windy and has a speed limit of 50, with no room to turn around until we had gone some 9 or so miles past the dam, and at that point, we decided to return another day. However, we were treated to some great views of the fields and woods along the way to Worthington.

Hay is all ready for pickup 

 The Worthington fire department is located on Huntington Road, and also shares space with the town police department as well. I was happy to see that the town's brush fire truck was outside when we visited-another truck for the nephew to look at! 

     After leaving Worthington we continued north towards Route 9 arriving just east of the town of Windsor. We backtracked a few miles towards the station there, where we were lucky enough to see a large deer crossing the road casually in front of us. Of course by the time I grabbed for the camera it had already headed off into the woods. The Windsor firehouse is also a volunteer station, and is located directly on Route 9 just before the country store and local church. No trucks were outside though at the time. We weren't really having a lot of luck today so far with that aspect.

On our way back down Route 9 heading east, we of course had to make a stop at the Old Creamery  in Cummington for ice cream. You will spot the building from a mile away due to the large fiberglass cow on the roof of the building. If you are looking for some great ice cream-this is the place my friends! I highly recommend the "moose tracks" ice cream- a fudge chocolate swirl with mini reese's peanut butter cups inside. Hit the spot on this warm humid summer day.

The town of Cummington has a firehouse located on Main Street. At first glance, it looks abandoned, but according to the sources we consulted, it is the only active firehouse in town. We couldn't see any trucks inside unfortunately, and it is also a volunteer firehouse.

Leaving Cummington ,we continued heading west on 9 to the town of Goshen. Definitely one of the best logos I've seen on a firehouse so far. The side of the building faces the road, hence the two pictures below. There was a blood drive going on at the time of our visit, unfortunately I can't donate so soon after my last donation so we didn't stay long. 

Side view of firehouse from Route 9

We continued from Goshen a little ways down Route 9 and detoured to the town of Chesterfield shortly after Goshen center. About 10 minutes later we reached the center of town and the Chesterfield firehouse on North Road. This is also a volunteer firehouse-like many others in the hilltowns. I think its a cute looking little building! 

 On our way back down to Route 9 we stopped in the town of Haydenville to get a shot of one of the firehouses there. There are technically two firehouses for the town of Williamsburg, one of which is located in Haydenville on South Main Street. This building also houses the Williamsburg police department(located in the rear of the building). What I like especially about this firehouse is that it still houses the old bank "vault" alarm on the front of the firehouse, which can see on the second floor of the building to the left of the bay doors. Next time I am up in town I will be sure to get a photo of the second location. 

UPDATE: 6/5/14 I was able to return to the town of Williamsburg  

Mailbox outside firehouse

and get photos of the second firehouse location near the center of
 town. I was glad I did so, simply for the little details on this firehouse that make it "home-like  "