Rockland Firefighters President Tom Henderson with PFFM President Bob McCarthy at the press conference
The Rockland Firefighters wish to express our sincere thanks to all of those that came to our press conference and the Selectmen's meeting on June 15th to support our opposition to a Public Safety Director.Without the support of the members of our local, PFFM President McCarthy, the PFFM and the large number of members from other locals our position would not have been heard. The battle is not over and we must remain vigilant to make sure that the search for our fire chief remains in the fire service. Thank You, Tom Henderson, President Local 1602
Selectmen under fire: Union members say Rockland board violated Town Charter
By Mikaela Slaney
GateHouse News Service
Posted Jun 17, 2009 @ 12:01 PM
ROCKLAND —
So far, the position of fire chief in Rockland is still up for grabs.
Officials say one option to cover this position would be the hiring of a public safety director, who would be in charge of the police and fire departments simultaneously.
Although selectmen have not made a finalized decision, Rockland Firefighters Local 1602 are quite unhappy with this possibility.
Union president Tom Henderson and Robert McCarthy, president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, took turns at a podium in front of more than a dozen silent firefighters outside the station on Union Street station Monday evening.
“Today we stand before you to voice our strong opposition to the Rockland Board of Selectmen’s proposal to eliminate the Rockland fire and police chief, to create a public safety director,” Henderson said. “Our selectmen are blatantly violating the Town Charter.”
Henderson said a safety director lacks knowledge and experience to effectively direct the fire department, which works to keep 17,000 citizens in the town safe.
“These are all critical decisions, that affect the safety of residents,” Henderson said.
Henderson added this decision should not be made without input from the residents, who the decision would directly affect.
Henderson added a public safety director would be partial to one department over another, which would prove to be a problem if there was a fire and a robbery at the same time.
But Town Administrator Alan Chiocca said a public safety director is only one possibility being considered.
“The selectmen are supporting all options available,” Chiocca said. “At this time they’ve delayed filling the vacancy for at least two weeks based on an offer by the Plymouth County Fire Chief’s association to assist Rockland in gaining the services of maybe a retired chief for maybe an interim period of time.”
Chiocca added selectmen may discuss the matter again at their June 29 meeting. And before that meeting, Chiocca added the board plans to meet with candidates and members of the association to try to discuss options for a temporary chief.
Although there is no deadline on the matter, Acting Fire Chief William Fergusson, has said he would like to be relieved of chief duties by Aug. 3.
“Somewhere down the line, if they wanted to have a safety director, they’d need a Charter change,” Chiocca said. “But the board recognizes that it wants to explore its options.”
McCarthy said this would be an option the fire department would be dead against, adding he fears selectmen would choose a “puppet who tells selectmen what they want to hear.”
McCarthy stressed firefighters would be risking their lives under the watch of a public safety director.
“When they go into a building, we don’t come out unless someone tells them to,” McCarthy said. “I will sue (selectmen) … if one of my members gets killed, one of my members gets injured, if one of my members loses property.”
Rockland Standard
Firefighter unions help defeat idea to appoint a public safety director in Rockland
By Gilbert B. Arbuckle
ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT
Posted Jun 16, 2009 @ 11:51 AM
Last update Jun 16, 2009 @ 01:45 PM
ROCKLAND —
About 50 firefighters from 10 towns packed the selectmen room on Monday to oppose replacing the position of fire chief with that of a public safety director.
The town’s fire chief retired last year, and its current deputy chief is scheduled to retire this summer. Selectmen had scheduled the discussion of a “public safety director” position to be filled by current Police Chief John R. Llewellyn.
But the idea was killed, partly due to comments from Llewellyn himself.
Robert B. McCarthy, president of the Professional Fire Fighters Massachusetts AFL-CIO, argued that firefighting was a science and that it was imperative that the person in command have experience in the field.
Putting someone who is inexperienced in firefighting in charge, he contended, would jeopardize not only residents but also firefighters.
“We go into that burning building and we don’t come out until someone tells us to come out,” he said. “If he hesitates, we are not coming out.”
Police Chief Llewellyn said he doesn’t want to have conflict between the police and fire departments.
“It is important that we not be divided over public safety sector in any way,” he said.
He also acknowledged that firefighting was not his line of work.
“I don’t know the difference between white smoke and black smoke,” he said. “I don’t know the first thing fighting fires.”
Rockland firefighter union President Thomas Henderson told the board that to create the new position would violate the Town Charter, which stipulates that the board “shall appoint a fire chief ...” It makes no mention, he said, of a “public safety director.”
He asked the board to “search for a new chief whether from inside or outside” the Rockland department.
Selectmen Chairman James F. Simpson said after the meeting that his board had understood that appointing a public safety director required a change in the charter and would take at least a year.
The board, he said, had no intention of putting any person in a position who lacked the needed experience, he said.
The board agreed to have the police and fire chiefs meet on June 29 with Zupkofska and Selectmen Michael P. Johnson to work toward some solution. It will not be discussed at town meeting, he said.
Rockland Firefighters to Oppose Creation of New Public Safety Director
Press Conference Details:
Monday, June 15, 2009
5:45 pm
Rockland Fire Station
360 Union Street, Rockland MA
The Rockland Firefighters, along with members of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, will hold a press conference, Monday, June 15, to discuss their opposition to the town’s creation of a Public Safety Director. The matter is expected to be taken up, and possibly voted on, at the regular meeting of the Board of Selectmen on Monday evening.
“The Board of Selectmen are attempting to circumvent the Town Charter by creating a Public Safety Director instead of a Fire Chief,” said union president Tom Henderson. “The Rockland Firefighters position is that we need an experienced firefighter as Fire Chief and Head of the Department. This individual needs to have knowledge and experience of our department, and be able to make sound decisions that relate to firefighter safety and accountability, fire behavior, building construction and emergency medical needs, all critical decisions that will ultimately contribute to the safety of this community.”
“The Selectmen need to understand that the Rockland Fire Department is more than just a budget,” Henderson continued.
Rockland has always had a Fire Chief, up until recently when the Chief retired. Since then, the Deputy Fire Chief has been acting as the Department Head.At the June 1 Board of Selectmen’s meeting the Selectmen chose to focus on the creation of a Public Safety Director instead of searching for a qualified firefighter from within the fire service to serve as Fire Chief.
The Rockland Firefighters Local 1602 position of the need for a fire chief is supported by professional organizations of the fire service including the International Association of Firefighter, International Association of Fire Chief’s, National Fire Protection Association, and the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts.
ROCKLAND — Dorothy Archibald, 84, was driving to pick up her 57-year-old son, who has problems with vision and comprehension, after he finished another shift at the Stop and Shop in Abington where he worked.
For nearly 20 years, she would pull up in her Buick to bring Dennis back to their Rockland home. But Thursday, she didn’t show up.
She was on her way when she attempted a left turn onto Market Street in Rockland. As she did, she was struck by a car driven by a 23-year-old Weymouth woman. Both drivers were killed. The crash took place just feet from Archibald’s home on Damon Road.
“You think of all the times that you walked around that corner,” said Bruce Archibald of Holbrook, one of Dorothy’s three children, who came to stay with Dennis overnight Thursday. “Whoever knew that she would be killed right there, on the corner of her own street. It’s hard to really realize what has happened.”
Disbelief was also palpable on Charles Street in Weymouth, where Gina LaRocco’s family and friends mourned the loss of the 2004 Weymouth High School graduate.
Her older brother greeted mourners with prolonged hugs at the door Thursday. He declined to comment.
“It’s not a good time,” he said.
Police officers and firefighters from Rockland, Abington and Hanover worked for an hour to extract Archibald and Larocco from their cars, which police described as “mangled.”
Rockland Police Chief John Llewellyn said LaRocco was conscious at the time rescuers arrived, but slowly slipped away as a steering column she was pinned beneath was removed. She and Archibald were pronounced dead at South Shore Hospital.
LaRocco was traveling west towards Hanover when the accident occurred around 12:45 p.m.
LaRocco lived in a neighborhood made up in large part of family members. Longtime family friend Michael Molisse said LaRocco’s grandmother and aunt live on the same street.
“She comes from a great family, a very close-knit family,” Molisse said. “She’s such a sweet, sweet girl. I’m sure that the family is just devastated, because she was everything to them.”
A Rockland police reconstruction team is investigating the crash. The cause had not been determined Thursday. There appeared to be no skid marks or damaged property near the intersection where the crash took place.
Bruce Archibald said his mother was an avid churchgoer and exerciser. She and her late husband moved to Rockland in 1979 from Connecticut. Her son Dennis had always lived with her.
She was the eldest member of the family, Bruce said, so he didn’t expect to be shocked when the inevitable call came that she had passed. But he was when he learned a 23-year-old had died as well.
“When an elderly person’s getting older, sometimes you wonder when something is going to happen,” he said. “But with a young kid? Oh my god, you know? That was almost more shocking.”
Fire damages home of Abington couple who planned to wed Saturday
By Allan Stein
ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT
Posted Apr 30, 2009 @ 11:30 PM
ABINGTON —
Daniel Marino and his fiancee, Catherine Delano, were at a Cohasset church Thursday rehearsing for their dream wedding when they got a phone call informing them that their home at 299 North Ave. was in flames.
The two-alarm fire of undetermined origin rendered the two-floor house uninhabitable and destroyed nearly everything of value the young couple had accumulated — including her wedding dress, their wedding rings, tuxedos and the couple’s passports they need to travel to Antigua for their honeymoon.
Luckily, a neighbor rescued Delano’s beloved Brady, a 4-year-old Pug mix, from the heavy smoke and flames before nearly succumbing himself. He was rescued by another passer-by.
Family members were grateful no one got hurt.
“We’re glad they got the dog. That’s (Catherine’s) life, that dog,” said David Marino of Melbourne, Fla., Daniel’s father, who had traveled to Abington for the couple’s wedding that was set to take place Saturday in Cohasset.
He said the family isn’t sure if the wedding will still be held Saturday.
The future bride, who along with the future groom visited the fire scene later on Thursday, said she was just happy Brady was safe and unharmed.
“That’s all I care about,” she said.
Daniel Marino was too upset to talk.
Firefighters from Abington, Brockton, Whitman, Rockland, Norwell and Holbrook responded to the blaze, reported at 5:05 p.m. One firefighter suffered possible injuries related to the heat and was taken to a nearby hospital.
Abington Fire Chief Arthur J. Pelland said the fire may have started in the basement or in a rear section on the first floor and spread quickly through the walls and attic of the single-family home. Firefighters had the fire under control by 6 p.m.
The fire remains under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office, and the cause remains undetermined, Pelland said.
Firefighters cut two holes in the roof of the house to vent the dense smoke and heavy flames.
North Avenue resident Lester Carter said he was shocked when his daughter called to report smoke billowing from the couple’s house. He said he got there as quickly as he could.
“I didn’t know if anybody was inside the house. Then I heard a noise,” Carter said.
The noise sounded like a dog in distress. Carter said he smashed the front window, climbed inside the house and found Brady, terrified and nearly unconscious.
He grabbed the dog and rushed for the window, then nearly succumbed to the smoke.
Fortunately, another Abington resident, Jack Freeman, had seen the smoke and pulled both Carter and Brady to safety.
“I grabbed him and pulled him out the window,” Freeman said.
Sharon Carlson of 298 North Ave. said the first thing she saw was smoke billowing from her neighbor’s house.
“It was smoking. And then all of a sudden it was crazy smoking,” Carlson said.
David Marino said his son and future daughter-in-law have lived in the house for about two years and planned to live there as husband and wife.