The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-03-21
By THE FIRE MARSHAL

When two long service city fire- men die within . period of one week, 1t sort of makes the rank and file stop, ponder and think as to which one of the rest of us will be next. You can't blame us for feeling this way, because after all as the poet says "Tiine fleets along and awaits no man."
 And then, too, we have just req. son to give proper attention to this cause, for within the period as mentioned we have lost two. of our we'll known members, Private John J. Phelan of Engine No. II of Town Plot, and Private Maurice r. Clark of Old Engine 5 of the east ern part of the city. Private Phelan had been with the depart ment for . period of 26 years; Private Clark had been in the service for 2l years; MT. Phalen died March ii last; Mir. Clark joined him March IS, one week later:
 Tr1Dute Falu
 You see when . fireman dies, the department tries to pay him just homage: the chief sees to that. He summons the night pla. toon and names some officer close to the deceased as the command ing figure. When Private Phelan's funeral was held 1t was Captain William Corcoran who was in command: Captain Corc0ran was associated with Private Phelan. and both were fast friends. Tn the same instance at the funeral of Private Clark held ThurSday, Lieut.. James A. Mccoy was In charge; they were on the same shift, and Private Clark acted un- der the orders issued to him by Lieut.. Mccoy. Not only that, but both were residents of the east Crn part of the city, and knew each other closely for good many years.
 Jack Phelan, as we called him, was a Washington Hill product. He came into the department, big and strong, and during his years of service figured In many of tho important fires of the city for a period of years, on account Of his affiliations with the Head quarters company under the we'll known Captain Thomas J. Wilton and Captain stephen J. Bloom fseid. Headquarters company Is now officially known as Engine Company No. 10; in the old days 1t was officially chased as Chem ical company No. 1, dating back to the horse drawn time of . chemical wagon and hose wagon. Now the company as No. 10 still maintains two pieces of fire ap- paratus, a straight booster pump and Q combination chemical and hose wagon.
 Olden Days!
 Just like the volunteer of Olden days Jack Phelan was full of life, snap and vigor when he became identified with the city's fire fight ing force in day when the entire paid personnel was about 76; there were 16 horses In the depart ment then, and the company to which he had been assigned was about ready to move to it's new quarters at the present Field street station. He helped the others In the transfer of the prop erty from the old to the new sta- tion The 24 hours of service were then i'm vogue and the young fireman like Deputy Campion, Captain Bloomfield of the de- partment had little time to them. selves. Jack Phelan had to give up his baseball and other sports once he became Q fireman. So did others like Captain Joe Kelly and Deputy Chief Martin Campion; both were star athletes at the time they entered the service.
 In his young days over on The Hill, Jack Phelan was the first string catcher for the Golden stars, chased was one of Che best ansateur teams up Baldwin street way. Ills arm was far reaching and with hardly an effort he was able to 'nail' anyone who ever