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Date: 8/2/2023
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Standing in front of the members of the 78-person department he now leads, new Fire Chief C.J. Bartone said his new role isn’t about him.
“I’m honored and humbled to be in this position,” Bartone said at his swearing-in ceremony at West Springfield Town Hall on July 24. “This day is not about the swearing in of a new fire chief. It’s about the members standing here behind me. They have an unbelievable ability to adapt and overcome any challenge.”
Bartone paid tribute in his comments to the town’s four most recent fire chiefs, from outgoing interim Chief Robert Manchino Jr. back through predecessors William Flaherty, David Barkman and John Flaherty, who was the chief when Bartone joined the department. He said he learned a bit from each of them.
Mayor William Reichelt said he’s confident Bartone will continue in that tradition. He said the retired and older firefighters he’s spoken to all had a high opinion of Bartone, and the new chief is “a testament to the leadership qualities that they’ve created” as previous fire officers trained the department’s next leaders.
The new chief is not from West Springfield originally, having been hired as one of the first non-residents to join the Fire Department in the early 2000s. Bartone grew up in Albany, New York, with two uncles as firefighters, and a father and other relatives as police officers.
“I knew from a young age that I wanted to be a firefighter,” Bartone said. “You hear stories. You hear what their day at work is and was. It seemed very exciting to me.”
He came to Springfield College to earn a bachelor of science degree in emergency medical services, and graduated from the state fire academy in 2001. He took local civil service tests, and was the first person hired from the paramedic civil service list, in 2001. He has served his whole career in West Springfield.
He was promoted to lieutenant in 2011, and to deputy chief in 2022. Bartone said he still finds the work as exciting as it was in the beginning.
“I didn’t want my career to be ‘a job,’” he said. “I wanted to go to work and enjoy every minute of it. When I go to work, it’s not like going to work.”
He said in most jobs, workers show up for an eight-hour shift, do their work and go home. Firefighters in West Springfield work 24-hour shifts, so time at work includes many opportunities to build personal relationships and camaraderie.
“We cook meals together, we train together, we work out together,” Bartone said. He said firefighters in West Springfield are eager to go back on duty so they can be with their friends. The shift changes at 8 a.m., he said, but “people are rolling in at 7.”
Bartone said he feels he’s been handed a well-run fire department and does not plan any major changes in the short term. He said “you have to constantly evolve,” but envisioned change as a gradual and deliberate process involving multi-year planning. His immediate plans are to upgrade software systems used by firefighters and to integrate a new fire truck, expected to arrive sometime in August.
Manchino, who served as interim chief for 13 months, was honored for his retirement earlier in the day. He said he doesn’t have any big trips or projects lined up yet.
“Go slow,” he said of his plans.
He said he’s ending a 36-year career as a full-time firefighter while he still enjoys the job. Manchino said he believes the department is in good hands: “C.J. is a great guy.”
Bartone returned the compliment, saying he had learned many of the skills he will now apply as chief by following in Manchino’s footsteps. Bartone said each time Manchino was promoted, he was promoted into Manchino’s former rank. When Manchino became interim fire chief last year, Bartone took Manchino’s old role as deputy chief.
“You taught me how to be an effective fire officer and a communicator,” he said. He particularly cited Manchino’s demeanor as “cool, calm and collected” in any situation, and the way he “always made time for everyone, from the top down,” as examples he hopes to follow.
“You’re a dedicated fire professional and a true gentleman,” Bartone said of Manchino.
In his comments at the swearing-in ceremony, Bartone also thanked Jon Davine, the former Northampton fire chief who was recently appointed as state fire marshal. Bartone served with Davine on the District 4 Hazardous Materials Response Team, a task force of firefighters from several Pioneer Valley cities and towns who train together and assist each other in the specific discipline of responding to fires and spills involving explosives or substances that pose a health risk to people or the environment. They also served together on the state’s Joint Hazard Incident Response Team, which works with the State Police Bomb Squad on calls involving explosives and narcotics.
Bartone called the hazardous materials work “an extremely exciting aspect of my career” and said he thinks it helped prepare him for the fire chief job. Through his work with Davine, Bartone was able to learn from another department’s chief and meet firefighters and chiefs throughout the region and even in eastern Massachusetts.
Bartone said he hopes to continue serving on the regional and statewide teams, though his duties in West Springfield will take priority.
“Obviously, this [chief] job will be the foremost focal point,” he said, “but I feel there’s definitely benefits for me to still have a hand in that role. We have, specifically here in West Springfield, a lot of hazardous materials … more so than most communities in Massachusetts. To have your fire chief still have a role in the hazardous materials team, the JHIR team, … that will pay dividends for the city.”
He noted that tanker trucks carrying hazardous materials pass through West Springfield on two Interstate highways, and that dangerous cargoes are loaded and unloaded at the rail yard. The town also has a major cold storage facility, Agrimark, which makes use of hazardous materials.
Bartone thanked his wife, Alison, and their children for bearing with the stress of a firefighter’s family and always supporting him.