Fire Department Meeting, January 2, 2024
Matt Curry re-elected Fire Chief. New bylaws approved. Staffing issues.
The Fire Department held its annual election for Fire Chief. Matt Curry won with 14 votes. Steven Ross received 3 votes.
The department is short-handed at the moment. One newly recruited firefighter was injured in a fire before leaving his prior job and has been unable to start work. One firefighter has taken a leave of absence. Another resigned. The department has made an offer to a prospective hire, who is considering the offer. This would appear to explain why the department was unable to maintain its standard 24/7 staffing of the fire station for New Year’s weekend. When the station is not staffed, the department relies on on-call members to be first responders, which increases the time needed for responding.
The firefighter who resigned was Frankie Bruno, who submitted his letter of resignation on December 29. Firefighter Bruno was a central figure in Charla Stevens’ investigative report that the Board of Selectmen relied upon in its decision to terminate the department’s former Fire Chief. Stevens named Bruno in the report and his name was not redacted when the report was made public, although, strangely, the page discussing Bruno cannot be opened with a desktop PDF reader but can be opened with a mobile PDF reader. The report detailed two incidents between the former Fire Chief and Firefighter Bruno. In one incident Firefighter Bruno violated the department’s convention of not putting a lock on one’s locker, which the former Fire Chief responded to by having the lock cut off. Another incident involved the personalization of his firefighter’s helmet.
The department approved new bylaws. Selectman Shirland said that the proposed bylaws had already been reviewed by the Board of Selectmen and the town attorney. They had no concerns.
EMTs Alex Campbell and Kevin Dolan were presented with letters of Commendation of Service for a December 15 incident in which a routine medical call turned into an emergency as the patient went into cardiac arrest while being transported in the ambulance. The patient required CPR and three defilibrations. They not only survived the heart attack, but did so with no subsequent loss of cardiac function, which is an unusually good outcome.
The department’s new, second ambulance should be in service by the end of the month. Delays in equipment delivery have held up this date.
Other News
Public hearing on the school budget, Thursday, January 11, 7:00 pm, at Town Hall
Community bonfire on Saturday, January 14, 5:00 pm at the town sandpit
Blood drive on Wednesday, January 24, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm, at Town Hall
SCBA fire fighting packs are positive flow, so if the seal is broken isn't the air is pushed out? Smoke and toxins do not get breathed in.
Well it’s good to see the Fire Department elect one of its own members instead of the Selectmen installing another random Building Inspector or something like that to the role of Fire Chief like they previously did.
Now, the big question remains whether or not this board will follow through with the will of the Fire Department and appoint the elected Chief….it was brought to light at the last BoS meeting that the Fire Department always holds their annual elections but there is zero consistency on the back end with the trivial act of the BoS confirming the election results. Hopefully this signals a beginning to the end of the corruption that plagued Nottingham in recent years.
Another thing worth noting, elected Chief Curry is in blatant violation of NFPA regulation by sporting a full beard.
This is a liability risk to the town for ignoring SCBA seal requirements.
National Fire Safety Standards and Protection are clear on this issue.
Everyone in the Fire Fighting community understands this. These are not new guidelines. It’s fire fighting 101.
Not the best look for a Department and town trying to navigate its way through the messy fall out of terminating it’s long time, well known and respected Chief.
The BoS need to address this violation before someone from the state level or worse is made aware and comes down on the town.
Not like Nottingham needs anymore negative attention.