Falk retires after 35 years

By Debbie Gardner

PRIME Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW You might say fire department veteran Brian Falk has spent his professional life looking out for the people of this town.

Even today, as this retired 35-year firefighter works the aisles of the local Rocky's Hardware, he's still making sure people who seek his help get what they need.

And that's not counting his continued work as deputy director of the town's Emergency Management Division and chairman of the local Emergency Planning Committee.

Not to mention his role as publicity chair of the town's 4th of July Parade Committee, a position he's held since 2004 (he's been with the Parade since 1979).

It seems, at least in Falk's case, the role of public servant is one that's hard to put down.

"The nice part of retirement is I'm not working 12-hour days," Falk told Reminder Publications during an interview about his recent retirement from the Fire Department. "It was very common to be working three-to-four 12-hour days, and that was without committee meetings or anything!"

An accidental career choice

According to Falk, fire-fighting really wasn't the first career he had in mind when he thought about going into public service.

"I'm not really sure [why I joined the fire department]," Falk said. "My father was a police sergeant in town and at one point I wanted to be a police officer. I don't know what changed my mind."

He did mention that, back in the late 1960s and early 70s when his dad was on the police force, it was possible to be a member of both departments.

"He was a call firefighter also," Falk said of his dad. "When he retired from the police department he was a call lieutenant."

A little digging around Falk's family tree showed that an uncle had also gone into the town's fire service back in the 1940s.

"It was my mother's brother. I never knew about him," Falk said.

You might say fire fighting was in his blood when Falk joined the department as an auxiliary firefighter in July of 1971.

Then and now

Falk told Reminder Publications he's seen a lot of changes in both firefighting and his hometown over the past 30-plus years.

"When I got on [the department] we wore metal helmets, long coats and long boots," Falk said. "We rode on the back steps [of the engine] out in the weather."

He recalled his first fire -- a garage with a car in it -- and how he got "wetter inside than outside" fighting that fire because his rubber coat leaked so much.

"Now [firefighters] have more modern helmets, short coats, bunker pants, short boots, personal escape packs ... all made of modern materials. Air packs are common, we were just starting to get them in [in 1971] ... and now everyone rides in enclosed cabs out of the weather. You're not beat before you get there," he continued.

His training at the Springfield Fire Academy was a mere two weeks, and consisted of learning to climb ladders and handle hoses, he said.

"Now someone goes to the State Fire Academy and they're there 12 weeks ... recruits get special training on top of the day-to-day [fire training] ... hazardous materials, fire prevention, natural gas and propane," he said.

As the equipment and training of firefighters has changed so too has the town where he used to fight fires, Falk said.

"You didn't have as much population, didn't have as much business, and definitely didn't have as much industry," Falk said of East Longmeadow in the early 1970s. "Hazardous materials as we know it now really didn't exist."

Today, as chairman of emergency planning for the town, one of his jobs is to put together totals of the different types of chemicals that are transported through East Longmeadow.

"There's been a lot of development in both residential and business, and in industry," Falk said of the changes he's seen in East Longmeadow. "And there's a lot more transportation that comes through town."

He said in terms of hazardous materials, the major dangers he sees come from the number of gasoline tankers that drive through town and the "grocery delivery trucks, because they have mixed loads."

Making a difference

Falk said that, of all the work he's done as a firefighter, teaching fire pervention in the town's schools proved to give him the biggest reward.

"When I was doing fire prevention, I got kind-of burnt out," Falk admitted. "Then we had a house fire [one year] and the fire chief at the time asked the daughter why she got out without a problem, and her parents had to be treated for smoke inhallation."

"It got back to me that she remembered what the fire department had taught her," he said. "That put me in a different frame of mind, that I was doing some good."

The second duty he came to enjoy was fire inspections.

"It's an enducation thing also," he said.

"All the things I do . fire prevention, emergency management . is teaching people things," he said.

And that teaching extends to the Boy Scout Fire Explorer Post that Falk agreed to join as an advisor four years ago, and still works with regularly.

"We just finished a fund-raiser that got them all helmets that are different from the departments'," he said.

Though the Explorers don't go out with the East Longmeadow Fire Department yet, Falk said they do learn fire-fighting skills, and three of the post's graduates have gone on to join the department.

"It's a career track," he said.

And though Falk said he won't miss having the pager go off in the middle of the night, he does wish people in the town were more aware of what the fire department does for them, and how they do it with staffing that has changed little since he joined, even though the town has grown.

"People don't realize they don't have a fire department 24-hours [a day], "Falk said. "The on- call department has been able to get out in relatively good time, but not as quick as if someone was in the station."