East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department History

The East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department was organized September 24, 1942. Harold Dennler received a phone call from then Naubuc Fire Department Chief William Connery, suggesting that due to the escalation of WW II, it may be feasible to have fire protection in the eastern section of town.

Harold mustered together the required 32 members and received a trailer pumper from Uncle Sam.

With the ingenuity of several members and the benevolence of the Matson Mills, the Landry Family and in particular Norman Landry, another pump was mounted in a 1937 pick-up they donated, and Co. #3 had its first truck.

The equipment was first housed in Lev Weir’s garage on Fisher Hill Road. Many members of the Weir family have served the department for at least 2 generations.

Following this, the old machine shop from the Angus Park Mill was renovated into the East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department’s first station.

In 1943 the town wide protection was formed. The East Glastonbury Volunteer Fire Department became Co. #3.

From the trailer pumper to the modern vehicles of today, and from a garage to a mill building, to a modern 4 bay fire house it occupies today; Co. #3 showed remarkable growth. In fact, the growth in this area of town required a split of Company 3 in 1965, thus Company 4 was established.

When the "split" of Company 3 occurred, Bernie Dennler, Sr. was appointed Captain of Company #3 and William Bailey the Captain of the new Company #4. At this point GFD Company’s new “1st due” areas were roughly cutting the map of Glastonbury into 4 quarters geographically.