Whether out for a run, sitting down to a family dinner, or taking notes in a Darien High School history class, when the “tones drop” (a fire service colloquialism for the pager tones sounding), Darien fire fighters respond.
And not one of them is paid to do it. Darien’s force — about one hundred men and women strong and comprising stations in Noroton, Noroton Heights, and Darien – is 100% volunteer.
And, as Noroton volunteer Jack Butcher put it, “the fact that most people don’t know this means we’re doing our job.”
Each call over station horns, personal pagers, and cell phone apps is met with the same professionalism and tight, well-rehearsed chain of command. The first four people to show up, staff a truck, and go. This can happen in minutes.
“You really never know,” said Noroton Heights volunteer Cameron Law. “A call can come in as an automatic fire alarm, and you arrive on the scene and there is smoke coming out of a window.”