GREENFIELD — Amherst’s Town Council has honored the Greenfield Fire Department with a certificate of exemplary service after the department, and its new ladder truck, spent 14 hours helping to extinguish the Olympia Drive fire that destroyed a five-story apartment building in November.
Fire Chief Robert Strahan announced the citation at this month’s City Council meeting, where he discussed Greenfield’s role as mutual aid in the Amherst fire.
“We got a very nice letter from the town of Amherst. They had a very big, devastating fire with a building that was under construction and then quickly extended into some other buildings that overwhelmed the water supply system, which made some challenges for putting out that fire,” Strahan said. “That fire burned for about four days. We were asked to send our brand-new ladder truck, which you all approved a year ago. … It spent 14 hours fighting a fire under pretty hard conditions, temperature-wise.”
City Council approved the $1.9 million ladder truck purchase in February. The funding, which came from transferring $1.6 million from the city’s Capital Stabilization Fund along with transferring $300,000 from the Ambulance Revolving Account, replaced the city’s 25-year-old ladder truck.
Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Town Council President Lynn Griesemer attached the citation in a letter sent to city councilors.
“The scale and intensity of this incident presented challenges that no single community in the region could have managed alone. Your ladder truck was a key piece of equipment in fighting the fire. It was a true testament to the strength of regional cooperation,” Bockelman and Griesemer wrote. “The dedication, skill and preparedness of your emergency responders were crucial to fighting the conflagration. We commend the calm demeanor, expertise and selflessness displayed by all the personnel on scene.”
Strahan, at the Dec. 17 City Council meeting, paid homage to the firefighters who worked to help extinguish the five-story blaze, while also expressing gratitude for the strong collaboration between fire departments and districts within the state.
In a later interview, Strahan added that he is certain Amherst would assist Greenfield in the same way, should the city need the support. He thanked Amherst for its kind recognition.
“The firefighters did what this department does every day, and that is perform at the highest level of professionalism and dedication, to make sure that whatever mission that is passed to the Fire Department gets done in a very high-quality manner. To get recognized by another organization, such as the city of Amherst, is truly humbling,” Strahan said. “It just reinforces our very aggressive and very robust mutual aid system that we have in the fire service, not only at the county level, but at the western Mass level, at the state level. In that fire, they have one ladder truck and they needed seven. … In incidents like this, they needed more help than they had.”