A Wachusett Muster League truck muster will be held Sat., Sept. 18, on Still River Road along the foot of the Common. Harvard is one of eight teams in the league, whose members rotate hosting the event each year. It was Bolton’s turn, but their team was happy to let Harvard host instead, in honor of its celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Harvard Fire Department.
“This will be our biggest event for the public this year, and we’re hoping everyone will come cheer us on,” said Lt. Andrew Perry.
A parade of antique trucks will kick off the muster at 11 a.m., and the six events that comprise the muster will begin immediately after that. The events, for which each town enters a team of eight firefighters, are timed, and each team accumulates points according to how they place. There are traveling trophies for the top three finishers overall, as well as for the winner of each event and for best sportsmanship.
Although the competition sounds intense, Perry, who will emcee the event, said it’s not cutthroat. It’s a good time and family-friendly. A muster is “a microcosm of the fire service,” he said, where all firefighters are ready to help each other out and to share resources—lend a truck and even people, if a town lacks enough members to make up a team.
The Harvard Fire Department has been participating in musters since 1925, though there were none during and right after World War II. In 1982 Harvard hosted a muster for the town’s 250th anniversary. (Perry put in a call to his grandfather, Peter Warren, former Harvard fire chief, to check these historical facts.) In 2008 crews brought home their first championship trophy and have done so four more times since, most recently in 2014. For more trophy space, the Harrod family donated a new case in memory of firefighter Ken Harrod.
The muster events are “a throwback to the way things used to be,” said Perry. The teams use antique trucks. Harvard’s antique, “Sherman”—so named because it looks like a tank, Perry conjectures—was purchased in Connecticut in the mid-1990s. There are old hoses that need to be connected and old nozzles and pumps; rather than a hose that uncoils from a reel, hoses have to be rolled out as the truck moves. The muster rules are the same as those in place when musters first started.
Perry said the most exciting event is the tower race. The truck races 150 feet while laying hose. Firefighters leap out of the truck to connect the hoses. One of the crew hurries up a ladder to the top of a tower, which is resting against a lift, hired for the day, and hoses “flames” on a wooden target.
The bed race makes for great entertainment: Crew members lie under blankets on a row of cots. At a signal, they jump out of bed, go to the gear room, and get fully outfitted, from hat to boots. Then they hustle to lay out hoses.
The host town has the option of creating a special race, and Lt. Tony Shaw has devised a car-fire race. Perry said it will be “interesting” to see how each town’s crew interprets the rules. For those with 20 or more years in the fire service, there is the old-timers race.
Perry said practice is allowed and encouraged, and the 12 to 14 members who will be participating for Harvard have been training one or two times a week since the beginning of August. Each firefighter can choose which events best fit their particular strengths. Perry noted that Harvard is fortunate to have a high level of participation.
Merchandise commemorating HFD’s 100th anniversary will be on sale and can be custom-ordered—everything from hats to all kinds of shirts to pint glasses. The muster is traditionally held on Father’s Day, but in late spring the department decided September would be a better time. Some indoor events planned for the 100th celebration, such as an October talk on the history of the department, have been canceled, but Perry said a documentary will be produced and aired later in the year.
Harvard Fire Department members Shane Nogler (holding nozzle) and behind from left, David Hazel, Robert Curran, Mark Shaw, and Bill Barton compete in a previous muster. Firefighters from eight area towns compete in events that demonstrate their skill and speed in fire-related tasks. (File photo)
