The Rev. Allen Hoyt is the new pastor of Milford’s First Congregational Church.

MILFORD – Allen Hoyt had always had wanted to be a minister, but when he was 18, his pastor sent him on another path when he suggested that working in the fire service was another way to serve God.

“I went to my first fire and the hook was set,” Hoyt said. “When you are 18, what’s not to love” – the surge of adrenaline fed by the sirens, the red lights, by riding on the back step of the truck.

On top of a bookcase in his office next to his fire helmet is a face shield that melted during a big fire in Plymouth, Mass.

That office is now at the First Congregational Church in Milford where, the Hoyt is the new pastor.

After serving for more than two decades with the Plymouth Fire Department and then chief for six years of the Hanson Fire Department, he received his letter of acceptance into Andover Newton Theological School – on the day of his retirement party in 2001.

Hoyt was the first student accepted into the new Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies degree program at Andover Newton and one of the first five to graduate.

On Oct. 8 this year, he became a fully ordained minister. He and his wife, Verna, who have three adult children and six grandchildren, recently moved to Milford with their two dogs and two cats.

“I like everything about being a minister,” he said, including teaching scripture and showing how it’s applied to everyday life, teaching children and teenagers, helping people through funerals. “I love working with teens. I love the confirmation program. I love music, and they have great music.”

No wonder. The church’s music director, Ben Mague, is president of the Andover Organ Co. and one of Mague’s technicians tunes the church organ and is the organist at Hoyt’s former church, Church of the Pilgrim in Plymouth.

Hoyt went to the Milford Pumpkin Festival and was enchanted and impressed, he said, “by the vibrant, energetic sense of community. It was absolutely delightful,” he said and confirmed that he is in the right place.

But he knows Milford has not escaped the ravages of the addiction epidemic. This year, he has been to the funerals of five victims of drug overdoses, and all of them all over 35. In Milford, he wants to organize community vigils and try to remove some of the stigma surrounding addiction.

“We try to be a resource, try to get help,” he said.

The only thing he doesn’t like here is the distance between Milford and the ocean, or any large body of water. Raised in West Bridgewater, Mass., this is the furthest inland he’s ever been in his life. Plymouth, where he spent the bulk of his firefighting career, has 367 ponds over 108 square miles.

“When you’re a firefighter in Plymouth, you spend a lot of time on the water,” he said and jokes about saltwater withdrawl. But the people of Milford have apparently made up for this deprivation.

“I am really impressed about how friendly people are around here,” he said.

Hoyt replaces the church’s interim pastor, the Rev. Alex Gondola.