Carmody named permanent Lynn fire chief

LYNN – If Lynn were Hollywood, Fire Chief Dennis Carmody’s career might be in dire straights because he is no longer acting.Carmody, 56, was named the city’s permanent fire chief by Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy in a ceremony earlier this month at City Hall. The designation allowed him to drop the temporary title of acting fire chief and simply become the department’s head honcho.More than 150 well-wishers – many of them Lynn firefighters – packed the room as Carmody took the oath of office. The chief’s parents, Lil and retired Lynn firefighter Gene Carmody, were also in attendance.”We have an excellent fire department in the city, with a lot of hard-working men and women. I’m proud to be able to lead them,” said Carmody, who served as acting chief for the past six months.Carmody’s swearing in not only signified the official end of a four-year controversy over the top two positions in the Fire Department, it also marked the beginning of a new chapter in a distinguished career.A graduate of St. Mary’s High School and UMass Amherst, Carmody worked in business and finance for eight years before becoming a firefighter in 1983. His career change was inspired by his father, who served as a Lynn Jake for 30 years.”He always loved the job,” Carmody said of his dad. “I took the test and followed in his footsteps (as did his brother, Richard, a retired Swampscott fire chief).”After working six years on Engine 6 at the former Franklin Street station, Carmody was promoted to lieutenant and spent seven years on Engine 3 at Western Avenue. He was promoted to captain and served as safety officer for the department for a year before moving to Engine 5 at Fayette Street for 10 years.As most Lynn firefighters can attest, working a decade on an engine out of Fayette Street translates to plenty of on-the-job experience.The chief easily recalled his first fire at the corner of Lawton and Hamilton avenues. “The fire was set in a hallway against an outside doorway. The first and second stories were involved but we knocked the fire down quickly,” he said. “It was nighttime and it was my first fire, so of course I was excited.”Engine 6 was a 1963 Mac, already two decades old. “There were no tools on the engine because all of the compartments were rotted away,” said Carmody. “It had one air tank and a canvas rack on the side of the truck. In those days, we only had a few Scott packs on the truck, 15 minutes of air for one or two people. We had to crawl under the smoke to get to the fire. If it was on the third floor, we would run hoses up the ladders and into the building. Smoke inhalation was common.”When the Fire Department heads toward a blaze today, every firefighter going into the building carries a communications radio and wears an air tank with greater capacity, fitted with an audible safety alarm.”Our mission has changed. Before, all we did was go to fires and false alarms. Now we are fire/rescue. The portion of our business that involves medical runs is huge,” said the chief. “Education, fire prevention and inspections of fire and smoke alarms and sprinklers are all part of the job.”Training, too, has changed. “When I was hired, you signed the list at City Hall. There were no background checks, no interviews. I trained at Broadway (firehouse) for a week. We were sent to ride with a different company each day. The officers would say, ‘If we have anything, hang on to my coat.’ My first officer was Jim McGee, a captain on Engine 6 who retired as a district chief. I worked for him for four or five years.”Carmody was top scorer on the exam for deputy chief in 2006, but the position was given to James Carritte in January 2007, leading Lynn Firefighters Local 739 to file for for arbitration. Carritte was subsequently named acting chief and Carmody acting deputy chief in January 2008.In June 2009 an arbitrator ruled in favor of the union, determining that the city must re-do the selection process for deputy chief. The city appealed that ruling in Supe