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(Left) Ashburnham Fire Department got some help from their colleagues from across the state after the work recovering from the ice storm kept many of the call and full-time firefighters at the department or on the streets of town nearly 24-7 for a week.

One of those firefighters that came back was Brian J. Whitney, a former Ashburnham resident and the son of Ashburnham residents Bruce and Margaret Whitney. Whitney (third from the left), a firefighter with Concord Fire Department, worked in Ashburnham on Wednesday, Dec. 17, with a crew from Fire District 14/Task Force which sent an engine company to the Ashburnham Fire Department for cover duty to relieve the on-call firefighters and give them a chance to rest between working their regular jobs and working as a paid-on-call firefighter.

Whitney joined the Ashburnham Fire Department in 1983 at 16 years old as an on-call paid firefighter before moving to his first full-time firefighter position in Littleton. He now also works as an Instructor/Coordinator at the Massachusetts Fire Academy located in Stow.

Whitney is not the only member of his family to have worked for the Ashburnham department his brother, Kevin, as well has his parents served as call firefighters.