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50th Anniversary Celebration program book
Once upon a time there was a group of fire chiefs, who were together at the East Greenwich Firemen’s Ball in 1966. They decided that they wanted to explore the idea of forming a new group of permanent fire chiefs
They began meeting and their group became larger, with chiefs from many of the paid fire departments joining in. After 7 meetings through May of 1967 they decided to form this new group but they didn’t have a name. They gave themselves choices that included
However, the most interesting name given to our new group came from outside. This name was “The Unholy Thirteen”. Interestingly, there were 14 original members! We have to assume that one them was considered The HOLY ONE………. Anyway – They whittled the list of names down to two that were brought to the group. RI Professional Fire Chiefs Association and RI Association of Fire Chiefs Inc. and by a two to one margin they chose the RI Association of Fire Chiefs.
They also elected Chief Thomas Duckworth, of the Warwick FD as their first president, Chief Thomas Powers of Cranston Vice President & Chief John Sullivan of the Quonset Point Naval Air Station secretary/treasurer
Well our new group didn’t waste any time getting involved in issues that included, mutual aid, communications, the fire academy, firefighter training, and the fire marshals office. Anything sound familiar there?
In a 1970 letter written by RIAFC President, Chief John Sullivan, he said “We cannot stress too strongly the need for continued training and education in the fire service field. New Equipment and apparatus are of no value in the hands of unskilled personnel.”
Now, our young group didn’t mind getting into a scrap or two, and the first time we see evidence of this is when we teamed up with the Fire Chiefs Club of RI to meet with the infamous Colonel Walter Stone of the RISP. They were to discuss “The FIRE MARSHAL SITUATION”. The team of Chief Tom Powers and Chief Fred Stanley of Hope Valley were the committee members who would eventually be drawn into a knock down drag out fight with the RI State Senate. We’ll get back to that in a minute.
Unholy or not, our new group was not against having a little fun in the sun. It seems that Narragansett Fire Chief Joseph Monahan lived on Ocean Road, not too far from the famous towers, and offered up his home for the July 1971 meeting.
The meeting notice reads something like this.
OK, Now that we’ve had some fun, let’s get back to our battle.
First let me tell you that there’s a long and intense story that goes with “the Fire Marshal Situation”. We don’t have time to explain it, but history was made. It seems that Senate Majority Leader John Hawkins took exception to the rattling’s of fire chiefs claiming he was using political influence to delay the appointments to the state fire marshals office. Chief Stanley accused Hawkins of, quote “trying to make asses of all state firefighters” and trying to control the fire service in the state. “Every time he opens his mouth he rips us to shreds” said Chief Stanley.
Well, with a little dose of intimidation, Chiefs Stanley and Powers were subpoenaed to appear… ON THE SENATE FLOOR… to answer for their criticism and be made examples of. This has apparently never been done before or since for this type of thin skinned reasoning. By all accounts the chiefs held their ground, and tried to make a statement, but the Senate never allowed it to be read. The headline on the following day, Wednesday, February 12, 1974 read “Fire Chiefs vs Senators Showdown Brings No Clear Victory”.
Well, things cooled off and appointments to the fire marshals office were eventually made, but one thing is true. The fire chiefs stood tall for free speech in the face of considerable political harassment.
Moving on, In 1976, Providence Fire Chief Mike Moise announced that a new “Chiefs Club” has been formed and that he was the President, and the iconic Chief Fred Stanley was the VP. Unlike the RIAFC meetings, their meetings would be held at night and their name will be, the RI Fire Chiefs Association Inc. Not the RIAFC but the RIFCA. This group would accept all fire chiefs as members and many belonged to both.
Well, we don’t know who put the caption in the newspaper when they had their installation of officers but it named them the RI Association of Fire Chiefs……. OUR NAME. Moving on, it didn’t take long before some confusion appeared, and at the next RIAFC meeting in January 1977, Chief Moise reported that the new chiefs organization had informed the Secretary of States office that there should be no conflict due to the “similarity of names” and that they meet on a different day in the evening. That ought to clear it up right……………………
In October of 1979 a proposal was offered by the RIFCA that both organizations merge and that the RIAFC would become the “Metropolitan Division” of the RIFCA. Only active paid chiefs could be members of the Metro Division.
Well almost nothing moves fast in the fire service accept fires…… but by October of 1980 they had a draft of the proposed “Urban Committee” of the RIFCA.
At the October 23rd meeting of the RIAFC a motion was made by Chief Moise and seconded by Chief Landry that the RIAFC become the “Metropolitan Division” of the RIFCA. SO VOTED.
END of STORY RIGHT……………..
Nope, it took other issues between the organizations that showed up a year later,…… and then further discussions, and FINALY… on April 22nd 1982, a motion was made “To Incorporate all Chiefs of Departments, who now belong to the RIFCA, into the RIAFC… SO VOTED Well our little group of unholy fire chiefs, who picked the RIAFC as their name, seems to have had the name that lasted, and remained intact. To my knowledge, they never used the Metropolitan Division and they never stopped using RIAFC on their letterhead.
But what’s in a name?
Well……, I can tell you there have been many names, …………..but this time I’m talking about people.
So bringing this full circle, I think we can agree that it’s not the name of the organization ….IT’S THE PEOPLE,
It REALLY is the PEOPLE
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