Fire Chief puts in 30, retires May 6

Warwick Beacon ·

When James McLaughlin, then 20 years old, started as a “floater” with the Warwick Fire Department, meaning he moved between stations depending where he was needed, it was the practice to place boots at the foot of the bed and have pants and coats ready for an emergency call. Now all that equipment is kept outside the living quarters after having been washed down.

The change was made years ago when cancer rates among firefighters was linked to the carcinogens carried on their equipment from being exposed to smoke and the fumes of a fire. Today, says McLaughlin, new practices, technology and training have not only made it much safer for firefighters, but also the people they are there to protect.

McLaughlin made that observation Friday in an interview as he reflected on his 30 years with the department. He will retire as chief on May 6.

McLaughlin said the decision to leave happened to coincide with Scott Avedisian’s timing to leave the city after serving more than 18 years as mayor. Avedisian has accepted the post of chief executive officer of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority. He will be leaving as mayor on May 15 or 16.

McLaughlin is not alone in deciding it’s time to retire.

Assistant Chief Edward Hannon III retires after 31 years of service this Sunday and Karen Bristow left Monday after putting in more than 32 years with the city.

Bristow stepped in the role of “mother of the department,” filled for decades by Mary Williams until 1997. Bristow served as secretary to two past police chiefs and four fire chiefs and had planned to retire in 2016, but agreed to stay on at McLaughlin’s request when Avedisian appointed him in January of 2016.

Mayor Scott Avedisian said yesterday that Assistant Chief Marcel Fontenault would assume command of the department, but he didn’t venture who might be named acting chief or, for that matter, chief.

“Thirty years was always my plan,” McLaughlin said on Friday.

Avedisian announced McLaughlin’s retirement last Wednesday at the same time that he told department directors of his intention to take the job at RIPTA. The mayor said while the chief will have completed 30 years on May 6, he would be leaving on June 10. That would have taken McLaughlin through the budget cycle and the Gaspee Days Parade.

While the question of who will be the next chief is unanswered at this time, Avedisian said, he sees no reason why McLaughlin can’t march with the men and women of the department in the parade.

McLaughlin, 51, who made the Warwick Fire Department his career plans to find a job in the public safety sector.

“I don’t have a choice,” he said. For the immediate future he is looking forward to being reunited with his son, a junior engineering student at WPI, who returns May 6 from a semester in Namibia.

Looking back, McLaughlin said that technology is “the big thing” that has changed the department. The use of tablets with GPS and record keeping of where and when vehicles are at all times is the most recent introduction of technology. He mentions imaging equipment that enables firefighters to know where their comrades are in conditions when blinded by smoke. Then there is the use of social media and the Red Alert system to keep the public informed during disasters. The chief also serves as the city’s director of emergency management. He mentions the development of Mutual Link and how that has connected the schools and even Warwick Mall to communications and surveillance systems to emergency management.

McLaughlin has also worked to open communications and visibility with the public, holding monthly station open houses and participating in events such as National Night Out and the Honor Flights hosted by the Rhode Island Fire Chiefs Association for World War II and Korean War veterans.

Asked about incidents that stand out during his tenure, without hesitation McLaughlin names the floods of 2010, when the Pawtuxet River inundated the Villa Del Rio apartments, Warwick Mall, Route 95, residential and commercial neighborhoods along the river and the wastewater treatment plant. The macroburst that hit sections of the city in 2016 is also top of mind. McLaughlin said the macroburst was the first time where National Grid assigned someone to work out of the emergency command center, improving communications and helping enhance power restoration efforts in the storms that followed.

McLaughlin identified training as a significant development during his tenure. He points to the special units of the department, from the marine task force and diving team to those who have been trained to recover victims trapped in narrow confines such as a wind turbine tower or on the roof of high buildings.

McLaughlin’s tenure as chief has not been without controversy, most of it surrounding the practice of firefighters filling in for one another, the use of fire apparatus to make stops at local markets to buy food for station personnel, overtime costs and his efforts to implement a vehicle replacement program.

Rob Cote, among his most consistent critics, has video taped firefighters making stops at the super market and questioned the practice. Cote has also submitted numerous requests for department records and initiated action with the Attorney General and Secretary of State over the retention of records pertaining to trading shifts.

McLaughlin has avoided a back and forth debate with Cote. He has also accepted the City Council’s decision to trim the department’s overtime budget and to postpone, thereby ensuring its loss, a bid for a demo engine that would have served his efforts to carry through with a vehicle replacement program. McLaughlin points out the department hasn’t bought a new truck since 2015 and that of the nine online and two reserve trucks it has, two recently failed to meet pump pressure tests. He said the department is “putting unnecessary money” into maintaining older vehicles and if it adhered to a replacement program it would not be faced with a wholesale replacement of equipment. He would like to see rescues on a four-year replacement program.

That was not to happen.

“I respect what they [the City Council] have to do. I never take it personal,” he said.

As for the questions raised by Cote, McLaughlin said he has sought to “never engage” in those issues and advised his personnel to likewise avoid confrontation, even though they may come face-to-face with Cote as he is videoing or inquiring what they are doing.

Asked whether he sees ways to contain, if not trim, department costs such as a regional dispatch system or providing coverage to neighboring communities on a fee basis, as East Greenwich once did for Potowomut, McLaughlin defends the current staffing of 46 on a platoon and minimum manning requirements that are set by contract.

“It’s still a hands-on business. Manpower is essential,” he said.

“It works well for a city this size,” he said of the department.

On average, the department responds to 17,000 calls a year. Seventy-five percent of those are rescue calls. McLaughlin said the department could use another rescue, pointing out that the Station 1 rescue in Apponaug responds to more calls than any other rescue company in the state. But, he also notes, an additional rescue would not only mean another vehicle but additional personnel at a cost to the taxpayers.

McLaughlin takes pride in the recent enhancement in the city’s ISO (Insurance Services Office) fire suppression rating from a 3 to a 2 based on a scale of 10. The change in rating, he said, will result in a 1 to 2 percent reduction in residential insurance rates and more for businesses.