By Kira Goldenberg
Hartford Courant
Copyright 2007 The Hartford Courant Company
All Rights Reserved
HARWINTON, Conn. — When a mother and two children died in a car crash at the intersection of routes 4 and 72 in the summer of 1997, Jack Wallace was one of the people who rushed to help.
“I had control of the scene from the eastern side,” recalled Wallace, who helped to direct traffic away from the wreckage. “I saw them load the bodies of the children into the medical examiner’s van, and that was something I’ll never forget.”
It was one of the saddest scenes Wallace recalls from his 38 years as a volunteer emergency responder in Harwinton and Torrington.
Wallace, who retired Dec. 31, was a member of the Harwinton Fire Police for the past 12 years, and its chief for eight. Before that he volunteered for fire, police and ambulance organizations in Torrington.
At a holiday party last month, John Fredsall, chief of the Harwinton Volunteer Fire Department, quipped to Wallace, 65, that fire police usually only retire after they die.
“There’s no question about it — we’re going to miss him,” Fredsall said.
Fire police are a volunteer force of mostly retired firefighters. They help control traffic during emergencies such as accidents and fires, and at fairs and other public events. Fire police members have fire department pagers and decide which calls require their service. Their work enables other emergency responders to concentrate on the situation and not have to worry about crowd or traffic control.
Harwinton’s fire police membership dropped from 12 to five last summer. The organization had a membership drive last fall which yielded five new fire police. Wallace said that increase made him more secure in his decision to retire.
Emergency volunteers must be ready to answer a call at any time, no matter what that call interrupts. Families “really have to have a lot of understanding, otherwise there’s trouble at the ranch,” Wallace said. Now he wants to spend more time with Jean, his wife of 44 years. They plan to travel to Florida.
Wallace loved volunteering so much, his wife said, that she never stopped him from rushing to emergencies, leaving her alone or, in earlier years, alone with their four young sons.
“I think he’s ready to do it, but I just find it hard to believe he wants to give it up,” she said. “He put his heart and soul into it. He loved it.”
But she and Wallace both sounded content last week at the prospect of devoting time to more relaxed activities.
Until 1978, Wallace lived in Torrington and spent 12 years with the Torringford Volunteer Fire Department, serving as chief from 1976 to 1979.
The family moved to Harwinton. Wallace began his involvement in the town’s ambulance and fire services in 1980. In 1994, he joined the fire police.
Although the Wallaces moved back to Torrington in 2002, he continued to volunteer in Harwinton. He works from home as a self-employed consultant, providing marketing and tech support to manufacturing companies.
Wallace may have retired from the fire police, but Fredsall and incoming fire police chief Duane Knox both said they are confident Wallace would still help out if asked.
“I’ve got big shoes to fill,” Knox said. “But he always says he’s just a phone call away.”