You’re an Ex-Chief; Now What?

By MICHAEL P. CAPOZIELLO

Your long journey is over. You’ve risen through the ranks. Hopefully, along the way you have done the job to the best of your abilities and gained the respect of your fellow firefighters. You have plaques and installation dinner mugs adorned with your name, your picture on the wall, and gold buttons on your uniform. To some, this is the turning point in a fire service career. Now what?

Although there are no solid statistics available, I would guess that close to 50 percent of all volunteer departments in this country have a constant, rotating system of chiefs and officers who serve in predetermined term limits; this type of system is very dominant on the East Coast. Whatever system you are a part of, there will come a time when a volunteer chief will have to step down and relinquish his white helmet.

Unlike career chiefs, a volunteer chief may still have the option to stay on as an active member of his department, once again performing his original role as a regular firefighter while holding a special department rank of ex-chief, former chief, and so on.

When this time comes, you will have to decide whether to retire or make the transition back into the rank and file. For some, it may be hard to realize that one day you are a “chief”-a major part of your department’s direction-and the next, you are back to being an “Indian.” But all good things must come to an end, and what goes up must come down.

At the completion of these preset terms, you will eventually find yourself riding backward on the rig once again. From my years of witnessing this phenomenon firsthand as well as talking with fellow firefighters from all over the country at conventions and seminars and in fire service Web site chat forums, I have found that there are basically two roads from which to choose when you come to this fork in the road of your firefighting career.

ROAD #1: THE ROAD OF BROKEN DREAMS

This is the “I can’t let go” road where you will sit back at the firehouse and forever tell tales of “how it was done when I was chief.” You will be the pot stirrer in the back of the room, making it hard for the new chiefs and officers to do their job, contributing nothing constructive to the well-being and growth of your department’s future.

Maybe you will settle into a chauffeur’s role and observe from the pump panel or turntable, proclaiming to anyone who will listen how it’s all being done wrong. These statements may sound a bit harsh but, unfortunately, by being part of a system where chiefs and officers rotate, you have probably known someone like this. This individual does not accept the natural order of things and will refuse to retire and go off quietly into the sunset with his gold badge or resume his duties as an Indian.

ROAD #2: THE TOUGHER ROAD

This is the road where you accept the end of your term as chief as being OVER and realize it’s time to focus on your new role within your department. You may have to do some serious soul searching as well as make some hard but realistic choices. You want to be a productive member of society again. But again, now what?

First, make sure you are physically fit enough to once again be a firefighter. Hopefully, your department has in place a physical procedure. If so, get checked out to make sure you can perform as you once did. If not, get a physical and implore your department to put something in place. Face it, you may have been passing your department physical every year in your chief’s role, but standing outside as an incident commander for years while lugging around a portable radio and a hand light is not “doing it.”

Once your physical is complete and you are cleared for firefighter duties, make sure you can do this again; your physical endurance level has probably dropped while you wore the white helmet. If so, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Put on your gear with a self-contained breathing apparatus and participate in the first drill you can. Also, you could just crawl around the apparatus bay in full gear with a set of irons or carry the can and hook up a few flights of stairs. Or, you could pull hose around the parking lot and up some stairs. Test your body; see what you can do, and improve on it. Running out of steam on the fire floor during your first call back as the can man does no one any good.

How are your hands-on skills? I admit that I was rusty. I had to retest all of my skills and techniques, from crawling down a hallway to using all the hand tools again to even “spinning the wheel” in the tiller seat. If you’ve spent your time the right way in the chief’s office, your “hands-on time” at fires was next to nothing. Your concerns in the command role were the strategies of the firefight, reviewing the fireground acronyms during size-ups, and following National Incident Management System protocols, among others. Now is the time to get involved again; find your weaknesses and correct them. Most ex-chiefs want to get back into the thick of it again but may be reluctant to show their weaknesses, especially to the younger members. They want to prove that, “Hey, I was the chief; I have no weaknesses.” Yeah, right; get over it. The young members will respect you even more as you go through this process.

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU DO?

Besides embracing your role as an Indian and responding to alarms, there are many other meaningful ways you can stay involved and play an important role in the direction of your department without the department’s SUV sitting in your driveway. Some may also fit chiefs who have had to step down because of medical reasons but are allowed to stay on as a member of the department. Following are just a few of these important roles a former chief can fill that would be vital to any department.

• Department trainer. Become a certified state-level instructor if you are not one already. Does your department have a training facility? If not, head up a committee to create one. Some innovative training sites have been built with a minimum amount of money by some very creative people. Use the talent you already have in your rank and file such as carpenters, electricians, architects, plumbers, and so on.
• Certified safety officer. All departments (I hope) have a safety officer program, but how many of your safety officers are registered with the Fire Department Safety Officers Association and the National Board of Fire Service Professional Qualifications registry? Many departments offer prep courses throughout the year that can help you prepare for the test. Check out www.fdsoa.org for more on this program.
• Fire prevention specialist. This is probably the most important program a fire department can maintain. It provides education and awareness and is a fantastic public relations tool. Pick up a fire prevention catalog. You will see hundreds of items available that will enhance your visual program. Get involved; fire prevention tools are much more than just coloring books and sticker badges nowadays.
• Junior firefighter program advocate. Advise or develop a program, which is a fantastic recruitment tool for a volunteer department. My department’s Explorer Program started in 1964. The unit attended the 1964 World’s Fair at Flushing Meadows, New York, and had a booth demonstrating various firematic-themed exhibits. Throughout the program’s nearly 50-year history, hundreds of youths have gone on to become firefighters in my department as well as many others across the county, state, and even the country. Dozens have gone on to become chiefs. I spent three years as an Explorer. The unit meets twice a month at a different firehouse and visits both high schools in our district at least once a year. For more info, visit http://exploring.learningforlife.org and http://juniors.nvfc.org.
• Community newsletter editor or local newspaper columnist. This great public relations tool is also a visible recruitment venue. You can write about any department happenings from recent alarms to upcoming fundraising events. Feature each member of your department in each installment. The newsletter can provide a perfect outlet for disbursing information to the public such as remembering to shovel out your hydrants when it snows, changing your smoke detector batteries when you change your clocks, phoning in an emergency call the right way, or dozens of other points. Leftover newsletters can also be distributed by your fire prevention unit during details and by your Explorers/juniors while visiting high schools on recruitment drives.
• Public information officer. This little-thought-of role is necessary for a department. Many professional public relation firms can put together a class in this area for you if you contact them. Remember, it’s best to get the information to the media on your terms rather than theirs.
• Grant writer. This may seem a daunting task to many, but it’s not that hard an endeavor. Why pay someone to do this when you can take a grant writing training course? Believe it or not, there is money out there. Check the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Web site at www.fema.gov for more information and assistance.
• Department historian. Have an anniversary coming up? Every department’s history is unique, and as you put in the years you begin to better appreciate members who have come before you. Plus, this is the perfect place for ex-chiefs to reminisce about how it was!

These are just a few examples. You can look at your own department and target certain areas as well. Anyone who has risen through the ranks as a chief in a system where preset terms dictate how long you will be in office will tell you to enjoy every minute of it, for it goes by very fast. It has been a great experience, but I now look forward to the next chapter of my fire service career as an Indian once again.

● MICHAEL P. CAPOZIELLO is a 28-year member and former chief of the Elmont (NY) Fire Department. He is also a department training officer, a public information officer, and a historian. Capoziello is a supervising dispatcher at Nassau County (NY) Fire Communications FIRECOM and a training officer on the fieldcom unit. He is also a 12-year member of the Nassau County fire service critical incident stress management team.