WHATELY — When recently retired Lt. Donald Dufault joined the junior firefighter program in 1965 at age 10, town firefighters wore rubber gear and rode to emergencies on the back step of a 1929 Ford Model A fire truck, “hanging onto the upper bar for dear life.”
More than 50 years later, even though Dufault has hung up his fire helmet, passed down his rank and retired last month, he still has not turned in his department-issued pager or lost the grittiness typical of firefighting.
“I’m lost without coming down here,” he said while standing in the Fire Department’s break room, looking at old black-and-white photographs, reminiscing about his more than half-century career in the fire service. “I still jump up and down when I hear the tones go off.”
Dufault said the current fire chief, John Hannum, presented a chrome-plated fire axe as a commemorative gift and a formal “thanks” for his many years of service, during a party Aug. 27 at the mandatory retirement age.
“He was a great asset to the department,” Hannum said Friday, adding that while he was lieutenant, Dufault willingly completed non-glamorous, tedious jobs such as equipment and vehicle maintenance. “He dotted the ‘i’s and crossed the ‘t’s, and you get him on the fire ground and he’ll do the job.”
Dufault retired in 2002 from a 30-plus year day job as a heavy equipment operator at Warner Brothers Construction in Sunderland.
Dufault was on the Fire Department’s traveling muster team (a competitive fitness event incorporating firefighting skills). And Dufault said he can remember when Eugene Graves, the town’s first fire chief, used his personal vehicle as an ambulance to take people to the hospital.
Dufault said firefighters were alerted to emergencies in the pre-digital era by a loud siren “that could be heard for miles.”
Dufault said a lot has changed since then. “Back in the old days trucks were standard shift 5-speeds, now they’re automatic transmissions,” he explained, adding, “There were only about six pairs of raincoats, helmets and boots, and whoever got there first had the gear.”
“Things are different now,” Dufault said. “Now, no one can ride on the sides or back of trucks, the town purchased a new (2014 Kovatch Mobile Equipment) pumper, and we’re up to date with our equipment.”
Today, Dufault still wears a Whately Fire Department ball cap out of respect to the department and in honor of the victims lost in flames over the years.
One particular fire that Dufault said stands out amid the rest happened at the Golonka farmhouse in 2013. Dufault described that fire as “one of our most tragic; two lives were lost.”
Other fires he said he will always remember include one on Christmas Eve as he was preparing for holiday Mass and another at the Whately Inn.
“It’s dark, it’s smoky,” the 50-year veteran said about what a structure fire is like on the inside. “You’ve gotta hang onto the hose, because that’s your lifeline. And if your air alarm goes off, you get out.”
He said he has enjoyed “working with all the guys and chiefs over the years,” will greatly miss the fire service, and “encourages all to join” because “departments are really struggling to get numbers.”
Dufault also said he is retiring because it’s required by law, not because he’s not in shape.
In the month since he retired from the department, Dufault said he has come to the fire station a few times and swept the floor for old times’ sake.