WELLFLEET — After 11 years as the town’s fire chief, 25 total years as chief and a 40-year career as a firefighter, Richard Pauley Jr. is passing the baton to his successor.
“Twenty-five years has been a long time as fire chief,” he said Thursday from his office inside the fire station. “We’ve done great things here, I’ve had great support from my staff, the taxpayers and the townspeople, and now is the time.”
Pauley wore a white polo shirt with the red and gold logo of the Wellfleet Fire Rescue Department and his title embroidered in gold on the front. The radio conversation continued as he sorted through neat stacks of paperwork. He’d long been responsible for a staff of 22, vehicles, equipment, budgets and worries.
“I love Cape Town and I love Wellfleet, but we made plans years ago,” he said, referring to his wife, Pamela, and they plan to spend summers in Maine and winters in Florida.
Pauley’s retirement comes at a time of change for fire departments in the three outermost towns of the Cape Peninsula. Provincetown’s former fire chief, Michael Trovato, resigned in early July. He had been chief since 1991. Both departments, and neighboring Truro, have been grappling with a decline in volunteer and standby personnel, an increase in hiring full-time career firefighters and a lack of housing firefighters can afford.
“We knew we did what we could,” Pauley said, “trying to leave this place better than when we arrived, and we believe we did that. Now it’s time for someone else to take it to the next level.”
Wellfleet Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Cappello will take over on Sept. 1.
Finding your calling in your teens
Pauly joined the Lunenburg Volunteer Firefighter Program when he was in high school. He was 16 and a half years old. Some of his closest friends also participated in the program.
“Right then and there, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” he said.
Six years after graduating, he was hired as the fire prevention officer and deputy fire chief for Laconia, New Hampshire. It was a dream come true.
Pauley’s office is just one door away from the dispatch center. From his office window on Thursday, he watched Engine 95 and an ambulance, sirens blaring, pull out to respond to a car crash on Interstate 6. It was a bright, sunny day just before noon, but Pauley said all fire chiefs say the same thing: They’re always worried about their employees.
“We have a well-trained staff. We have great people,” he said, “but I’m always worried about them, even this call at 11:30 a.m. on a Thursday. They’re out on Route 6. I pray everyone is being careful and nobody gets pinched.”
The department has grown in the last 12 years.
Twelve years ago, Wellfleet couldn’t dispatch two vehicles at a time. Pauley set out to change that. The department has grown from nine full-time firefighters, including the chief, to 22 today. There are four groups of five people on a shift. The entire staff is trained EMTs, and 70 percent of them are paramedics.
Wellfleet has a population of about 4,300, but like Truro and Provincetown, it sees a large influx of seasonal tourists and part-time residents.
Pauley said the best part of the job has been watching the department develop and grow, adding that he is grateful for taxpayer support.
The shelves in his office are full of notebooks, manuals and storage boxes. A Barnstable County Mutual Aid manual sits next to a street guide. Three thick Massachusetts building code manuals take up space on his shelves. A manual for the state’s comprehensive fire safety standards shares space with a facilities resource guidebook.
Pauley, who oversees an annual budget of $2.689 million, is a member of the Cape and Islands Fire Chiefs Association and served as interim town manager for 30 days last year.
“It was the longest 30 days of my life,” he joked.
“He has led numerous improvements to the fire department, including equipment upgrades and streamlining the ambulance procurement process,” Wellfleet City Council President John Wolf said. “He has navigated the maze of financial difficulties for the town and continued to operate the fire department at a high level.”
Three things he didn’t expect in his career
Housing is an issue Pauley never expected to have to worry about in his previous roles, and he said housing costs for fire department employees affect fire departments across the state and nation, including Wellfleet.
Pauley never expected to have to buy bulletproof vests or helmets for his staff, or that they would have to take part in active shooter training.
He also didn’t foresee the need to buy expensive new fire engines, ambulances and equipment, or replace them as they age. “We’re living in a whole new world,” he said.
Too many deadly fires
Firefighters, EMTs and paramedics are called to scenes of injuries, deaths and deadly fires. Pauly knew what the job entailed when he first took the job. Still, there are memories that haunt him. One of the worst memories is a fire in Manchester, New Hampshire, that killed two children and their mother on Christmas Eve.
Recognising the trauma caused by such incidents, there has been a push in recent years for emergency personnel to speak to trained therapists for emotional and mental support and overall wellbeing.
“It’s something that has to be done, because the last thing we want to do, and what we do, is bring it home,” he said. “My wife would say I brought it home and I shouldn’t have.”
Sandwich Fire Chief John Burke, president of the Cape and Islands Fire Chiefs Association, said for a fire chief, “when the phone rings, you have to make a decision.”
“I don’t think people realize how cautious you have to be in these situations,” said Burke, who said Pauley has been a great asset to the association.
“I wish him the best of luck. He certainly deserved it,” Burke said.
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