TURNER – Firefighting, it’s said, is a calling that creates a brotherhood, and never mind that some of those brothers might be Mathildas.

In this town, the brothers are known as Hammerhead, and their sisters are Mathildas. If they share a common parent, it had to be Cliff Jordan.

Jordan supervised his final training session Sunday. He had been at the village firehouse that was named in his honor earlier this year last Thursday night, too, said Chief Steve Fish. Jordan was always eager to make sure that the equipment was up to snuff, those who knew him best said.

On Tuesday, leukemia claimed what 38 years of flames never could. Jordan was 66.

“We’re going to miss him something awful,” said Shane Arsenault, the town’s assistant fire chief.

Fish said Arsenault and Jordan were like father and son, always together, always sharing a love of the brotherhood that is firefighting.

On Wednesdays – they each had that day off – Arsenault said he and Jordan would meet like clockwork at Youly’s Restaurant for breakfast. It was a given; they rarely needed to confirm the meeting.

“We’d plan our day,” said Arsenault. “It might be going to Fire Tech in Winthrop to give them a good-natured hard time about some equipment,” he added, or to visit some other vendor.

Other times, the two would climb into one of the Fire Department’s engines or pumpers and head off to visit a local school or a day care center. There, they’d let the kids sit where firefighters rode, then answer their questions, all the time preaching fire safety.

Safety was paramount to Jordan, said Arsenault. “He was cautious, and he knew what he was doing,” he said.

He was also a perfectionist, said Rod Guptill, another town firefighter.

Besides being Turner’s deputy fire chief, Jordan was an expert carpenter and contractor, Guptill said.

Earlier this week, he had called his friend and asked about spacing on a building project.

“He said 37-and-a-half inches, and it better be straight, too,” recalled Guptill.

Only later did he learn Jordan was so weak at the time that his granddaughter had been holding the telephone while he barked instructions.

Both men noted with a sense of satisfaction the decision of Chief Fish and those under his command to name the village fire station in Jordan’s honor, and to do it in March, while Jordan was alive to see the honor.

“He cried like a baby” when he saw the sign with his name on it – the Cliff Jordan Fire Station – said Arsenault.

They and Fish said Jordan’s sense of humor was legendary within the department, punctuated by his calling everyone – except the women on the force – Hammerhead.

“The women were all Mathilda,” Fish added.

So well-known were his pet names that a half-dozen women who work at Fire Tech signed a Christmas card to him as Mathildas. “He really got a kick out of that,” Arsenault said.

Fish said his deputy chief will be given a firefighter’s send-off Friday. He expects upwards of 25 communities to be represented by engines, pumpers and ladders as Jordan’s funeral procession makes its way from the Calvary Baptist Church to the Turner Village Cemetery following the 2 p.m. services.

There’ll likely be more than a few sounding sirens and clanging bells in his honor, as well.

People who want to join them in saluting Jordan can send contributions in his name to the town. The money will go toward the purchase of a new pumper.

“Cliff didn’t care what kind,” said Arsenault, “as long as it worked, and he could drive it.”

“We’re planning a couple of surprises, too,” Fish said, something as a fitting tribute to the man many in the department looked to as a second father.

After that, though, “There’ll be a tremendous void,” said Fish.