STERLING – Thomas Kokernak is a firefighter who likes history.
The lieutenant on the Sterling Fire Department combined those too interests, publishing “The History of the Sterling Fire Department, 1781-1981,” with help form the Sterling Historical Society.
“I have always been a bit of a history buff, so over the course of my career, I have always made a point to try and save any information I came across that related to the department’s history,” he said. “After doing this for many years, I felt it was time to put it all together in a format that could be shared with others.”
According to Kokernak, the book includes a lot of detail and “a lot of work was put into documenting information sources.”
“In this book readers can discover what it was like during the late 1700s when firefighting was the responsibility of everyone in the town; discover the events that led to the town purchasing its first fire engine in 1818; and what ultimately forced the town to organize a regular group of people to operate the engine in 1879,” Kokernak said. “They will learn the names of some incredible people who carried the fire department into the era of the internal combustion engine and who adapted the technological advances realized during World War II for use on Sterling’s fire trucks.
“They will get a chance to reflect on some of the terrible losses of life Sterling due to fires that occurred in 1815, 1933, 1946, 1957, 1966 and 1972 and see how over the course of the 20th century, Sterling went from having some of the oldest operating firefighting equipment in the country to being one of the most progressive fire departments in central Massachusetts,” he added.
A limited suppply of books were published by the Sterling Historical Society. Email book@sterlinghistorical.org to buy a copy. All proceeds go to the Sterling Historical Society.
“As a firefighter, when I first started writing things down, I was mostly interested in stories about fires and information about firefighting equipment. But once the story started to come together, I realized that it was really a story about people,” Kokernak said. “There were a lot of people and experiences in Sterling’s past that should be remembered for the profound impact they had to the town.
“In this book, you will be able to learn about those and be introduced to the names of those who played important roles in helping to protect Sterling from fire over the course of its history,” he added. “Every generation finds itself in a situation where it is chasing progress and, quite often, it is the fire department that gets called to deal with the imperfections in that progress.
“This book puts context to the innovation, the losses, and the sacrifices that went into building the modern fire protection system that keeps all of us safe today,” Kokernak said.