Lynn fire chief looks back at career with a smile

LYNN – Fire Chief Dennis Carmody packed 29-plus years in about five boxes Friday as he wrapped up the last day of his career as a Lynn firefighter.Handing off a pair of boots to his son Chris, also a firefighter, Carmody said he didn’t have much to take with him save for a lot of memories.Chris Carmody joked that with his father’s retirement he’d finally be out from under his shadow. Firefighter Michael O’Connor had much praise and some good natured ribbing for his soon-to-be former boss.”He’s a great guy, a consummate officer, consummate boss and an outstanding friend,” he said. “He not only taught me to be a firefighter but how to be a man and a good father to my kids ? and he’s a great water skier, that’s one thing people don’t know about him.””I’m also a great firefighter,” Carmody added but O’Connor shook his head.”Not really,” he said, smiling. “We knew he’d sit in that chair one day so we kind of protected him.”Carmody, 59, spent his first 24 years on the line as a firefighter, 11 years on Engine 5 on Fayette Street, six years on Engine 6 and seven as a lieutenant on Engine 3.”All busy stations,” he said.He then ping-ponged between being a deputy chief and acting chief and acting deputy chief, and then finally in August 2010, permanent chief.”I have no regrets,” Carmody said regarding his career. “There are a few decisions I might have done differently but I really have no regrets.”A McDonough Square kid, Carmody was the son of a firefighter and brother of retired Swampscott Fire Chief Richard Carmody, but he didn’t start out as a jake.”I went to school and got a (degree) in business administration,” he said. “I was an accounting major.”He resisted his father’s efforts to get him to take the civil service exam until he noticed one day that his father always went to work happy.”He would say, ‘you get paid money to help people,'” Carmody said. “So I’ve had a career where I got to help a lot of people.”But there were also losses. One day Carmody and his men were back from a run and standing on the ramp laughing and joking like they often did. It was a good day, the kind of day where you feel lucky to do what you do, he said.”A call came in for a motorcycle versus (milk) truck,” he said in his naturally quiet voice. “It was a double fatality.”Carmody said he remembers holding one of the boys involved in the accident in traction and trying to talk him through, but the boy died in his hands.”That was probably my worst day on the job,” he said. “I look back at that incident sometimes, it comes back now and then ? it’s why I worry about the other guys on the job.”He worries about the trauma and potential trauma firefighters, including his sons, face on a daily basis. But he trusts that their training has them well prepared.Carmody said when he started in the department he spent a week and a half learning to throw ladders and hooks up hoses before being assigned full time to a company.”Now firefighters have four to five weeks of intensive tactical training to get them working, and then they go to the academy. And then in the first year, if they don’t already have it, they have to get their EMT certification,” he said. “And that’s just coming in the door.”As Carmody packed his office he handed off his phone to District Chief James McDonald, who will be sworn in Tuesday as chief. Carmody said he believes he’s leaving the department in good shape, with good morale, and in very capable hands.”(McDonald’s) 35 years on the job, he eats, sleeps and breaths firefighting,” he said. “I had more of a business background, he has more fire experience.”It’s not a young man’s job, it’s a hard job, and the biggest stressor is making sure everybody makes it home, Carmody said.”You own it,” he added. “You own whatever happens. When I go to bed (Saturday) it will be kind of a relief not have to listen for the tone, not to hear the beeper going off.”His wife will also be happy. A school psychologist, she plans to retire next year, Carmody said.”I’m