By Abbe Smith, Register Staff 08/12/2008
WEST HAVEN — In the face of mounting budgetary woes, members of the Allingtown Fire Department forged forward Monday with a swearing-in ceremony for the new chief, deputy chief, a captain and two firefighters.
Thirty-year department veteran Peter Massaro was sworn in as fire chief Monday evening at the station on Fairfax Street. More than 70 people attended the ceremony including Mayor John M. Picard, members of the Allingtown department and past and present officials from the city’s other two fire districts.
Massaro, 58, served the district as deputy fire chief for about two years before taking over the top spot, which opened when Chief Victor J. Sampietro retired in February. Massaro has been serving as chief since his appointment by the Fire Commission in mid-April.
“Together, we will work as a team,” Massaro said, adding: “A good chief is backed by good men.” The new chief received his badge from wife, Karen Massaro, whom he thanked for putting up with scanner noise in the house for 30 years.
The ceremony kept a jovial tone despite looming budgetary woes afflicting the district. After the ceremony, Fire Commission Chairman Louis P. Esposito Jr. said the district’s auditors are going over budget numbers after the city finally finished its draft audit for 2006-07.
“If we don’t have a budget in place in a couple of months, there won’t be enough money to fund the fire department,” Esposito warned.
Also sworn in Monday was newly appointed Deputy Chief Christopher Reed, himself a 21-year veteran of the department. Reed, 42, became a lieutenant in a 2000 and a captain in 2004. He also will serve the department as fire marshal.
“My goal as deputy chief is to prepare all of you guys someday to take this position,” he said.
Replacing Reed as captain will be longtime firefighter Richard Murray Jr., 41, who this week celebrates his 20th anniversary with the department. Murray follows in the footsteps of his father, Richard Murray Sr., who worked 36 years as a firefighter in the Center District.
The department also welcomes two new firefighters: Paul Martus, 36, and Jason Cameron, 27. Martus was an emergency medical technician and paramedic for almost seven years at American Medical Response before joining the Allingtown Fire Department. Martus is another firefighter following the family tradition: his brother is a firefighter and his father is a volunteer firefighter, both in North Haven.
Cameron, who worked as an EMT for Nelson Ambulance, also has a family history in emergency response, though he is following a slightly different path. Cameron comes from a family of police officers and says his brother is in training to be a New Haven police officer.
He has been a volunteer firefighter in Allingtown for six years.
After they were sworn in, Murray presented the new recruits with a gift born out of their care for the department’s vegetable garden.
After telling a story about Martus and Cameron indiscriminately pulling weeds and vegetables alike, both men received copies of a vegetable gardening book “so they can tell the difference between a weed and a vegetable,” Murray said, eliciting laughter and applause from the audience.
Abbe Smith can be reached at asmith@nhregister.com or 789-5615.
İNew Haven Register 2008