Thursday, February 10, 2000 Older Editions

Fire chief to retire

By Taylor Armerding

Fire Chief Harold Wright will wrap up a career of nearly 34 years with the department on July 5.

Wright, who has held the top spot in the Fire Department for the past four years, informed Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski of his intention to retire last week. "I was debating about this July, or a year from this July," he says, and when he decided on this year, "I wanted to give the manager enough time (to choose a successor)."

Wright was the first of his immediate family to enter the fire fighting profession, in 1966, after he got out of the Navy.

"I had taken a two-week fire fighting course in the Navy," he says, "and I got kind of interested in it. Then when I got out and I found out they were building a new station in West Andover, I decided to apply for it."

Wright spent six years as a firefighter, four years as a lieutenant, 20 as a deputy chief and then the most recent four as chief.

But he says his proudest moment on the force wasn't even at a fire, nor was it when he was the chief. "It was when I was a lieutenant," he says. "I was working at the West station, and I was able to save a little girl's life, after she almost drowned in a swimming pool."

The most frustrating? That, he says, was at a fire in the Chapin House at Phillips Academy, which had gotten well established before firefighters arrived, "and because of years of remodeling there were three ceilings in it. That was really frustrating, because we kept fighting it by the book, but it was like batting our heads against the wall."

Wright says there was only one time in his career when he suffered a potentially serious injury, and that was when he had been at a fire where some plastics were burning, and he temporarily lost his vision.

The biggest change he has seen in his career has been in the training and duties of firefighters. "When I came on, they taught you on the job, which was fine, but now when they come in, we send them to the Fire Academy, and they continue training so they can stay up with what is going on," he says.

The techniques of fighting fires have also been refined, he says. "With what is called the incident command system, it defines people's roles at the scene, which is much more efficient."

And then there are the ambulances. "When I was new, the ambulance was a Cadillac, and we did the best we could, but boy were we limited. Now with EMT training and better vehicles, that was a tremendous upgrade.

Does that make things safer for today's firefighters?

"It's a contest," he says. "We have better equipment and training, and we have very bright young people that are coming on, but then industry has more chemicals and the buildings are much bigger.

"When I started, it was basically farmland around here, and now it's like an industrial complex," he says, adding that that doesn't even count the almost daily ambulance runs to accidents on Routes 93 and 495.

Finally, he says when he started, "the chief was like a god in the department. Now it's much more of a team approach. I have a staff meeting with my deputy chiefs every week, and we really are a team."

Wright says he has already made a recommendation about who he thinks should be his successor, but would not state it publicly. "That's the (town) manager's decision," he says. "I had set some criteria and standards, and I reminded him of those standards, but it's his prerogative. He's the appointing authority. I will say I think there are some very viable candidates within the department."

There are five deputy chiefs: Lincoln Clark, James Lynch, Richard Hartman, Charles Murnane and Robert Bush.

Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski says he expects to name a new chief by the time Wright departs, and says he will involve the public.

"I don't want somebody lobbying for their brother-in-law," he says, "but I do want to hear what they would like in a chief.

Wright says he'll be busy in retirement. "I've already been asked by a company to do some consulting, and I have an opportunity to do some college-level teaching," he says, "but before I get into that, I have some work I want to do around the house."

He also just recently became a grandfather, and since his grandson lives in Seattle, he plans to take some trips west. "We have a motor home that my wife and I like to travel in," he says.

For recreation, he says he hopes to get back to Scuba diving, "which I haven't been able to do since I became chief. And I enjoy fishing as well."

But the first visible sign of his impending retirement is on his face. Wright has begun growing a beard.

"I've grown one in the past," he says. "Maybe it's just a feeling of freedom this time."