Longtime fireman Frank “Chico’’ J. Zielinski took his final ride on a fire truck this week before being laid to rest Thursday in St. Michael’s Cemetery.
Zielinski’s casket was atop an antique fire truck he helped to refurbish – something he did as a hobby and as a volunteer at the Hotchkiss Hose Company on David Humphreys Road.
At 12:33 p.m. the fire department sounded the “last call to firefighter and friend Frank Zielinski,’’ which was broadcast on the police and fire scanners. Two fire ladders, one from Derby and one from Orange where he was a foreman with the Highway Department – formed a cross over the street in front of the Hotchkiss Hose Company in tribute to Zielinski and his casket passed underneath.
Last Saturday Zielinski, 60, died unexpectedly, just shy of his 61st birthday which would have been on Jan. 7.
The fire department was his life. He first started volunteering at the age of 16 and was the chief driver for the Hotchkiss Hose Company, a job he did with pride from 1996 on. He made sure the trucks were safe and up to snuff. He worked night and day in the last two months making sure that the company’s new fire truck was ready for service. He cleaned the firehouse if it needed cleaning. He cooked hotdogs at summer barbecues and cooked ziti during fundraisers.
“He was always there when you needed him’’ said Hotchkiss member and former alderman Mike Kelleher. “It’s still hard to believe he won’t be there. He was always such a great help to the firehouse, and me’’ said Kelleher.
Fire Commissioner Kelly Curtis said Zielinski sometimes sounded gruff and was called a “big bear,’’ but in reality he was “just a big teddy bear,’’ said Curtis, who is also a former fire chief. “Chico kept our trucks going and he will leave a void that will be difficult to fill,’’ said Curtis.
Former Alderman Ron Sill called Zielinski, “ a silent warrior.’’ Sill said Zielinski did much for the community and, “was one of those unsung heroes that you could always count on.’’ Sill said that if there were a fire in the middle of the night it would be Zielinski working the pumper, never wanting to call attention to himself. “He will be sorely missed,’’ he said.
The Board of Aldermen Thursday observed a moment of silence for Zielinski and former Mayor Richard Grande, who also recently passed away.
Sill said Zielinski was also a wonderful family man and said he was at a dinner with him in November and Zielinski said all he wanted for Thanksgiving was to have his children and grandchildren there with him.
That’s why Zielinski’s legacy will not end with his passing, as his son Robert, daughter Jennifer and grandson Christopher “C.J.” Matto are also members of the city’s fire company and will keep his memory alive, said Curtis.
Contributions in Zielinski’s name can be made to the Hotchkiss Hose Company, 200 David Humphreys Road, Derby, CT, 06418, or to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 120 Wall St., 19th Floor, New York, N.Y., 10005.
