Deering Steps Down as Fire Chief

After 18 years as Chief of the Hancock Volunteer Fire Dept. (HVFD), Rob Deering has stepped down. Jacques Veilleux was elected as the new chief at the department’s March 10 meeting. Deering, who has been a member of the department for 35 years, may have "retired" from the top spot, but he’s not leaving the department. He swapped jobs with the new Chief and now holds Veilleux’s former post as captain.

Also elected at the March 10 meeting were Tom Lloyd, first assistant chief; Adam Wood, second assistant chief; and Jack Ross, secretary/treasurer. There are currently 15 members in the department (ranging in age from 16-60), including two high school students who are junior members.

Firefighting runs in the Deering family. Rob and his wife, Diane, have two grown sons who are firefighters. Jon is a member of the HVFD, and his older brother, Andy, was also a member for a while, before moving to St. Albans, where he joined that town’s volunteer fire department.

Veilleux, a trucker who lives on Route 125 with his wife, Darlene, and their children, Danielle and Ryan, has been a member of the HVFD since 1991. He served as secretary/treasurer before becoming a captain, and says he joined the fire department because "I thought I should help out my town. Some day it could be my house that was on fire." Unfortunately, the first big fire Veilleux fought was at his house, which was gutted by the blaze. 

Deering says that when he took over the Chief’s spot from Gim Kinsley in 1985, he never expected to stay there quite so long. Back then, the firehouse had a dirt floor, which turned into a muddy mess in wet weather. Deering spearheaded a drive to earn enough money to put in a cement floor, and the firefighters installed it themselves.

Over the years, they’ve also replaced the four garage doors on the firehouse, one by one, and worked to keep their equipment as up-to-date as possible; culminating in the purchase last summer of their pride and joy, a brand new Sterling pumper/tanker truck that holds 1,500 gallons of water and can pump 1,250 gallons per minute. The HVFD also recently bought an old tanker truck from the Huntington Fire Dept. They’ll remove its stainless steel tank, which they’ll refurbish and install on the old pumper truck.

Deering and Veilleux agree that their "big dream" is to build a new firehouse some day on the town’s Taylor Meadow property.

Looking back at some of the fires he’s dealt with during his tenure as Chief, Deering recalled several that were especially difficult.

"I think the Everett Bettis house fire a few years ago had the worst general conditions for everyone to deal with," he said. "It was at night, so it was dark out and it was the middle of the winter and very cold. It was also snowing heavily, and the wind was blowing hard! All three valley fire departments worked together on that one and it was a tough night for everyone."   

Deering said the "scariest" fires he’s fought were at the Chesapeake mill: "One time, the dustbin on top of the roof exploded," he recalled. "There was a huge ball of fire that blew clumps of burning sawdust all over the roof, and we had to get up there and put them out. Another time, there was a propane fire at night at the tank behind the mill. It started when the heating element on the regulator caught fire and flames were shooting 40 feet in the air!"

Deering and his crew solved that one by putting together two hose teams to "blow" the fire away from the tank, while a firefighter crawled under the tank and turned the valve off.

"The fire stopped like turning off the burner on a stove!" he remembered thankfully.

The HVFD responded to 25 calls last year, split about equally between traffic accidents and fire calls. Most of those are chimney and brush fires, with an average of one structure fire per year in town. Deering said the members are more than happy to go into a local home or business to check things out to see if there are any fire hazards.

"I’d much rather take the time to do that than see someone’s house catch fire," he said.

The HVFD will soon be having a car accident training event with the Granville and Rochester fire departments. At the scene of an accident, the fire departments work with police and the rescue squad to help remove victims from vehicles and take care of traffic, any fire danger and stabilizing the vehicle.

"Basically, we try to make the scene as safe as possible for the rescue people," Deering explained.

The HVFD has a reciprocal agreement with the Granville department, with the two departments responding to all of each other’s calls. They also go to all the structure fires in all three towns in the valley; as well as sharing training with Granville and Rochester.

Veilleux said his department’s current goal is to train everyone to drive the truck and run the pumper. Right now, they have six men who are interior firefighters and run air packs, and he would like to see more people trained to do a number of jobs.

Veilleux said he doesn’t have any other specific goals in mind right now.

"I’ll just keep on going where Rob left off," he noted.

By Martha Slater