Many towns in Connecticut have more than one fire department. The reasons are varied; some are fire districts that issue their tax bills, and others were established as towns grew and the original fire department could not offer protection. A few are private, such as Pratt & Whitney and Pfizer.

Naugatuck currently has one fire department, the Naugatuck Fire Department (NFD), but in the past, several others also existed simultaneously in town.  The original fire department in Naugatuck was the India Rubber Glove Company fire brigade.  When the town took over the operation of the department in 1885, the name changed to the Naugatuck Hose Hook & Ladder Company, eventually changing to the Naugatuck Fire Department.  

For many years, the Naugatuck Fire Department, consisting of full-time firefighters, and the Naugatuck Volunteer Fire Department (NVFD) existed as separate fire departments.  The Naugatuck Board of Fire Commissioners had oversight of the NFD while the volunteers answered to the Board of Mayor and Burgesses.  In the early 1990s, control of the NVFD was transferred to the Fire Commission.  The two departments co-existed until the volunteer fire department was disbanded in 2005.

Several other independent fire departments in Naugatuck also provided fire protection, most notably the Risdon Manufacturing Company fire brigade and the Uniroyal Chemical Fire Department.  The Risdon brigade only responded to incidents in the plant on Arch Street, while the Uniroyal Chemical FD responded to incidents in Naugatuck and surrounding towns on several occasions.

One of the more interesting fire departments in Naugatuck was the Westberg Fire Department, located on Andrew Mountain Road.  The Westberg family owned a farm on the top of Andrew Mountain and owned at least three fire pumpers over the years.

There is very little information on Westberg’s fire department.  I was sent an article from the Bridgeport Herald by my friend, and fellow Naugatuck history buff, Joe Knowles, about Westberg.  In 1949, Edwin Westberg outbid Oxford Riverside Fire Company and Shelton Pine Rock Fire Company for a 20-year-old fire pumper that served Ansonia Charter Hose Company #4.  His bid of $615 ($5,900 in 2013 dollars) was far more than the bid of $250 ($2,411 in 2013 dollars) that Shelton and Oxford submitted.  I imagine the folks in Ansonia were quite pleased with the bid, and Mr. Westberg wished he had bid $251.  Mr. Westberg mentions in the article that his father owned two pumpers and that he used to play on them as a boy.

Mr. Westberg did complain that while the pumper was sold “as-is,” several items were missing when he picked it up, notably some lights and equipment.

Mr. Westberg offered his services to the towns of Naugatuck and Oxford, as well as to his neighbors.  The article states that “a good-sized fire” was put out by one of the previous Westberg fire pumpers.

There is no public water supply on Andrew Mountain, which presents a challenge to firefighting.   The fire pumper would have relied on the small, maybe 100 to 200 gallon, water tank or draw water from a pond.  Mr. Westberg had a pond on his property, adjacent to the road.  He installed a fire hydrant in the pond to make it easier for a pumper to draw the water from the pond. The hydrant is still visible, but the pond is long gone.

- Ken Hanks