HAWLEY — With four decades having passed since the Hawley Volunteer Fire Department was founded in 1984, current and former firefighters and their neighbors took the opportunity to take a step back and soak in the distance between where they stand today and where they started.

“Our idea was to try and open people’s eyes to how far we’ve come,” Fire Lt. and Emergency Management Director Brandon Root, who started fighting fires “at 2 years of age, in a backpack,” said during a 40th birthday celebration for the department at the Hawley Grove on Sept. 15. The now 24-year-old learned the ropes and fire hoses from his dad, Robert “Bob” Root.

Brandon Root, his mother Serra Root and Fire Lt. Hussain Hamdan rifled through annual reports and newspaper clippings from Hawley Town Hall and the Sons and Daughters of Hawley, the town’s historical society, to create the 40th birthday displays.

“It’s something to be proud of,” Brandon Root added.

Pinned at the top left corner of a trifold was a black-and-white photo from 1984. It shows the first seven Hawley volunteer firefighters grinning while leaning on two fire trucks parked in front of their new building.

Before that photo, the town relied on nearby Charlemont to race over in the event of an emergency. As Hawley Fire Chief Gregory Cox explained, the decision to build a team of Hawley firefighters “was about the math.” Reaching across towns meant delayed responses for emergencies and additional expenses like higher homeowner’s insurance rates. So in 1984, with a budget between $10,000 and $15,000, Hawley founded its own department.

“It created a great sense of community,” Cox recalled, grinning at the old photo. “The Fire Department totally galvanized the town.”

Firefighters and their neighbors transformed the 2-acre site of a former one-room schoolhouse for their Fire Station, with about 40 residents lending a hand.

“You have 15% to 20% of the town saying, ‘How can I help?’ and they did,” said Scott Purinton, Hawley’s first fire chief until 1987 and the only predecessor to Cox in Hawley’s 40 years of firefighting.

Three or four weekends later, they had a Fire Station, Purinton said. Now, all they needed were fire trucks.

After spending $3,000 on a used truck in Egremont, Purinton walked into a Conway Selectboard meeting with a blank check in his pocket and a second fire truck front of mind. Before the Selectboard members called for bids on their extra fire truck, Purinton turned to the other eight interested groups.

“I’m going to outbid you all,” he remembered saying, “so don’t make me spend money I don’t have.”

After his plea, one of the men rose and promised a free round of beers for everyone who left the bidding for the bar. When the Selectboard called for final bids, Purinton sealed the deal with only $1.

“The third fire truck we got from me writing a dirty letter,” Purinton recounted.

Without any fire truck hardy enough to rumble through the woods, the retired chief wrote a note to the state fire marshal saying something along the lines of, “If there’s a fire in the state forest, we’re not going, but I’ll give you a phone call and let you know there’s a fire.”

Three days later, Purinton recalled, the state fire marshal called him and promised him a fire truck for free.

“Hawley pulled off miracles,” he said.

Newspaper clips depicting 40 years of emergencies, including a horse rescue from 1993, were on display.

“This was a major operation,” explained Cox. He and former first responder Jane Grant remember Grant’s youngest son rigging a rope around the body of the horse, which was trapped in the mud of a 75-foot-deep bog. At dusk, they pulled the animal up with a troop of Hawley residents.

“There were a lot of people on that rope,” Grant said, peering at the picture. When asked how many helped, instead of a number, Cox listed every name.

Raymond Poudrier, the firefighter with the long bushy beard in that first photo, fought fires for Hawley until the fire masks grew seals.

“I was not shaving my beard!” Poudrier declared. The only occasion worth the cut? Getting married to his wife Melanie, who laughed while they both looked at the display at the Hawley Grove. “Where did the time go?” Poudrier asked.

The Poudriers’ neighbor, Lark Thwing, joined them in following the timeline.

“You see bits and pieces of it every once in a while, but to see this is pretty good,” Thwing said. Facing the display, he added, “When you’re in a community of 300 people, everybody knows everybody else, and everybody depends on everybody else.”

State Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, stopped by the Sept. 15 celebration to drop off a citation from the House of Representatives acknowledging the department’s 40 years of fighting fires. She described the volunteer firefighters as “literal lifelines” for Hawley, throwing “enormous time, commitment and heart” into their town.

Hamdan noted the volunteer firefighters are paid only for emergency calls, not meetings or trainings.

“The part I don’t want anyone to get lost on is that spirit of volunteerism and commitment to this town,” said Hamdan, who joined the department 10 years ago after Robert Root pleaded for volunteers at a Selectboard meeting. The next day, Hamdan walked into training, ready to protect his town.

“They listen on their pagers, even when there’s not a call,” he said, speaking of his comrades. “Before Hawley is even called on the radio, before even any kind of tone goes out, you’ve got an engine sitting in that station with a crew right beside it ready to go”

According to the lieutenant, their dedication extends past town lines. As rural communities with small populations, Hawley and its neighboring towns depend on each other. As Blais stressed, these places “don’t have the luxury of not working together.”

“Nobody does this job alone,” Hamdan stated.

From a $1 fire truck to a $30,000 fire truck, the department has grown from its roots, the firefighters reiterated. It began and continues today because of neighbors looking out for each other.

“We shouldn’t have been able to pull this off. We do so much with so little and we still do,” Hamdan said. “It really comes down to the people.”

Before bringing visitors on a tour of the Fire Station, Hamdan handed out awards to Grant, Cox, Robert Root, Brandon Root, Paramedic Sandra Mizula and Capt. Christopher Tirone.

Cox, whose award acknowledged his 40 years of service, started his speech with a confession. “When they proposed this anniversary, I hadn’t thought about what we all did in this town for many years,” he admitted. “Because at the Fire Department, we’re kind of focused on the next call, not the former calls.”

With the next calls in mind, Cox and Hamdan described further growth as not just a possibility for the Fire Department, but a necessity.

“We’ve outgrown the building that we’re in,” Cox said, noting that its blueprint was based on the size of smaller fire trucks from the 1970s.

The department hopes to either build a new complex or expand the first floor to include a bathroom, a more accessible training room, and space for the fire trucks and tankers outside to fit under a roof. Mentioning Blais, Hamdan said, “She has been a very strong advocate for the building.” He stressed, “We need that outside support.”