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06/29/2016 08:30 AMJohn Senn is ready to ride in an antique fire truck as Grand Marshal of Ivoryton’s Independence Day parade on Saturday, July 2. And that’s saying something, because John had open-heart surgery with five-vessel bypass on June 10. He is being honored for his 50 years of service to the Essex Fire Department and the longtime firefighter is not about to let a medical complication keep him out of the action.
“I am going to be ready,” he says. “I love the fire department. The comradeship, it’s next to none. You meet all kinds of people in the department; doctors, business owners, butchers, bakers.”
What is more, John’s days as a member of the department are not over. As soon as he gets the medical okay, John will be back at the fire department’s weekly meetings. John’s recent role at fire scenes has been helping keep everyone safe by directing traffic.
John says most of the department’s calls are medical emergencies and falls rather than fires. John himself is an EMT, and what’s more, was one of the people instrumental in creating the Essex Ambulance Association as it exists today as a volunteer organization. In the 1960s and early 1970s the association paid an ambulance in Middletown to answer Essex alarms. John was the volunteer ambulance corps’ first chief of operations but decided he preferred working with the fire department. “He was more interested in the fire department,” his wife Ethel says.
The Essex Fire Department, formed in June of 1833, is the second oldest volunteer fire department in the state of Connecticut, according to John’s son, Doug, who helped his convalescing father answer a recent visitor’s questions. John has served in a leadership role for much of his time in the department, serving as assistant chief, deputy chief, and fire chief. He is one of only three members of the fire department to serve for 50 years; the others are Paul Phoenix and the late Andy MacWhinney. All three served on the fire department management team together.
John is working with Ivoryton Librarian Elizabeth Bartlett on a history of the department. The project grew from a program the Ivoryton Library put on several years ago about notable fires the department has combated. That list includes the Essex Boatworks fire in 1968 and a blaze that destroyed Essex Railway Marina, which once stood at the foot of Collins Lane, in 1971. The Boatworks fire had potentially disastrous consequences far beyond the boatyard. “If the wind had been blowing, we could have lost the entire center of Essex,” John says.
He also recalls a number of arson fires, including one at the old Doane’s pharmacy, once a fixture in Centerbrook; the Trinity Lutheran Church, also in Centerbrook; and the Verplex lamp factory building on Route 154. Sometimes arsonists would set a small fire at a site on one end of town and, after firefighters rushed there, set a larger fire in another location. Fire fighters caught on to the ruse, keeping firefighters in reserve for the second blaze. “We were ready for them,” John remembers.
One of the most notable rescue event John was involved in was not a fire at all. During the flood of 1982, small streams turned into raging torrents, and many people needed the help of the fire department to escape from rapidly flooding homes.
John was also active on a statewide level, serving as head of the organizations for Middlesex County Fire Chiefs, the Valley Shore Fire Chiefs, and the Connecticut State Fire Chiefs.
What makes him most proud is his own family’s long history with the Essex Fire Department. Three generations of the Senn family, including John’s sons Doug, the department’s historian, and Ron, who served as a deputy chief, and grandson John J. Senn are also members of the Essex department. What’s more, John’s son Gary, who lives in South Carolina has also served in a fire department as has Gary’s son.
“We can’t get it our of our system. It must be hereditary,” John says.
John recalls his father was a firefighter, but not in Connecticut. John grew up in Bartlett, Nebraska. “It’s three miles from nowhere,” he explains. A computer check found Bartlett’s population ranged from a high of 145 in 1950 to a low of 117 in 2010.
John enlisted in the Navy and came to Connecticut as an electrician stationed in New London. And that, in the end, turned him into a longtime Connecticut resident. “I met a very nice lady,” he explains. And, as it turns out, she was a lady who knew a thing or two about joining fire departments. Ethel Senn says there was also a history of participation in fire departments in her family.
After six years in the Navy, John, now 78, spent the rest of his professional career as an electrician for Northeast Utilities, now Eversource Energy. He retired more than 20 years ago. His hobby gives a clue to his Nebraska roots: he restores tractors, including one that was original on the family farm in Nebraska. There are seven now in a barn on his property that he built himself to house them. Doug says when John’s grandchildren were small, one of their very special treats was a ride on the tractor with their grandfather. This year, as in past years, a number of John’s tractors will drive in the line of march at the Independence Day parade on Saturday, July 2.
On parade day, John will be wearing his full dress fire uniform, but not until Ethel gets one more service bar sewn on. The uniform shows bars for 45 years. She wants to make sure it is updated to show 50 before John wears it in the parade. Though she will make sure his uniform is correct, Ethel will not ride with John in the antique fire engine on the day of parade. She wants him to be the one to get the recognition. “He needs to be there on his own,” she says.
Ivoryton Independence Day Parade
Saturday, July 2 at 10 a.m. on Ivoryton Main Street
Marchers and bikers gather at the corner of Walnut and Main Streets in Ivoryton at 9:30 a.m.
Tractors, antique cars, and other vehicles at Cheney Street at 9 a.m.