Capt. Bourke retires after 34 years as Lynn firefighter

LYNN – When Robert Bourke joined the Fire Department in 1977, it wasn’t unusual to fight a fire every day.Bourke was promoted through the ranks to captain during the past 34 years. He was assigned to six different firehouses, eventually landing in the Fire Prevention Bureau, where he has worked since 1989.Today, Bourke, 59, of Lynn, retires from the job of chief inspector, one he thoroughly enjoyed. Co-workers continue to razz him about leaving the department, opening the door to his office to say “tick-tick-tick” or “the countdown is on.””I really found a home in fire prevention. It’s something I have really enjoyed,” Bourke said in an interview Thursday. “When I first got on the department, we were having fires almost every shift. Lynn was burning in the mid-1970s.”Bourke trained at the Broadway firehouse and spent five years aboard Rescue I, the department’s heavy rescue truck, which also served as the only fire ambulance.He also completed stints aboard Engine 3 at Western Avenue headquarters, Engine 1 in the Highlands and Engine 7 at Pine Hill, before transferring to fire prevention and emergency-management duties.”I’ll miss coming here every day,” he said. “I like the job and the people.”Bourke supervised five fire inspectors whose task is to ensure that schools, nursing homes, bars and other places of assembly are equipped with sprinkler systems, smoke and fire detectors, and constructed in a manner that does not pose a fire hazard. He handed off those responsibilities this week to Lt. Israel Gonzalez, the new chief inspector.The fire captain and his wife, Debbie, plan to move to New Hampshire, where they own a waterfront cottage on Lake Winnipesaukee. The couple inherited the property from a close friend who died from cancer, just as their own child, Stephen, did at age 4 in 1983.The latter tragedy prompted the couple to establish the Stephen Bourke Fund for Childhood Cancer Research.”I used to own a building contracting company, so during the first year I’ll put an addition on the cottage, and of course it’ll have a residential sprinkler system, even though it isn’t required by code,” said Bourke.He served on a state committee that helped draft Massachusetts’ current building code.Bourke has developed a liking for golf and a passion for boating. The deep-water dock beside the lakefront cottage proved ideal for his 24-foot Four Winns powerboat.”I’m strictly a recreational boater, not a fisherman,” he said. “I’ve had the boat for 22 years and it’s perfect for the lake.”Bourke didn’t plan to become a firefighter. Upon graduation in 1969 from Essex Agricultural in Danvers, he hoped to pursue a veterinary career. In those days, he was spending summers in New Hampshire, where he met his future wife and a man who would teach him to fly.”My wife’s best friend’s father was Harold Buker. He was a pilot with his own plane and a runway in New Hampshire. In the early 1970s, the best way to become a pilot was to become a flight engineer. He taught me to fly,” said Bourke, who later earned credentials at Hanscomb Air Base as a licensed flight mechanic and pilot.Bourke isn’t the only one in his family with a pilot’s license. His son, Robert Bourke Jr., 33, and daughter-in-law Janae Bourke, 28, are both commercial airline pilots, he with U.S. Airways, she with Continental.”Janae was my son’s flight instructor. That’s how they met,” the captain said. “He married his teacher and now they’re both based in North Carolina.”Other family connections led him to the fire service. “I became a volunteer for the American Red Cross in Lynn. I was an EMT and that’s when I got interested in the Fire Department. I’d see these guys at the fires. Besides, my dad, Ollie, was on the Fire Department for a short time after World War II until he got on the post office,” Bourke said.John Harlow, another family friend, was a firefighter at the former Franklin Street firehouse. Bourke passed the small firehouse on his daily walk to school from his Boston Street