SWAMPSCOTT — William Vousboukis has become the youngest current lieutenant in the Swampscott Fire Department after serving for nine years.
With his new promotion, he will also be at the helm of the department’s S.A.F.E. (Student Awareness of Fire Education) Program, which teaches fire safety in schools.
Vousboukis, 35, is a Lynn native who later moved to Swampscott where he attended the town’s high school. A promotional ceremony was held for him at last Wednesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting to recognize his bump to the rank of permanent lieutenant, which was effective on July 21, 2017 — he was officially sworn in during the ceremony.
Vousboukis said he takes the promotion seriously, and that he thinks he speaks for the rest of the department when he says that “we consider it a privilege to do what we do.”
“I love my job,” Vousboukis said. “I love my department and my group especially. We’re always training and we take the job seriously, but we’re also fortunate to be in a profession where we can have a lot of fun too. We do laugh a lot and we get on each other’s case a lot … There’s not another career that I would rather be in.”
With the promotion, Vousboukis saw his salary increase by 13.5 percent from $60,552 to $68,725, according to Fire Chief Kevin Breen.
Breen said Vousboukis joined the department on Sept. 2, 2008, and will be replacing Lt. Remo Zimbaldi, who retired on July 21 after serving nearly 33 years in the department.
Breen said Vousboukis took and passed the 2015 lieutenant’s exam, when one of the department’s captains was out with an extended illness. Vousboukis was appointed a temporary lieutenant from July 15 to Oct. 14, 2016.
“William is further following in Lt. Zimbaldi’s footsteps by taking over direction of the department’s S.A.F.E. program,” Breen said. “William just completed his first grant application for this program, which should bring in $5,300 to the town to operate this valuable education program.”
Vousboukis said he took over as coordinator of the program, which is something that Zimbaldi coached him in. S.A.F.E. is a state initiative to provide resources to local fire departments to conduct fire and life safety education programs in grades K-12.
Vousboukis said the department also does fire safety and education for senior citizens at the Senior Center through the program.
He said the department’s S.A.F.E. program has worked with fourth graders this school year and during the second week of this month, for fire prevention week, first graders from Hadley Elementary School will come to the fire house. Vousboukis said the firefighters will dress up in their gear to show the kids “not to be afraid of us” and that the visit is about “basically trying to get them familiar with who we are and what we do.”
Vousboukis said a firefighter will also slide down the pole at the firehouse and the kids will be allowed to take turns pretending to put out a fire with a hose.
Much like he was coached by Zimbaldi in the fire safety program, Vousboukis said he was groomed to be a lieutenant by Zimbaldi. He said the retired lieutenant took him under his wing and he was able to get a lot of on the job training.
Vousboukis said he has wanted to be a firefighter since he was a teenager. He used to work across the street from a former Lynn fire station, Engine 8, which is now out of service, and got to know a lot about those guys as a teen. He was able to learn a lot about the job. Even before that, like a lot of little kids, he said he was fascinated by fire trucks at an early age.
He said the most severe fire he’s seen during his tenure in Swampscott was last July’s five-alarm fire that tore through two side-by-side houses on Bay View Drive. Vousboukis said it was a unique situation — there was a water problem with trying to extinguish the blaze and it was a hot day so everyone was tested.
The department’s newest lieutenant said the profession is great wherever you work, but he’s happy where he’s at. On calls, he often gets to see friends of family or family, as he knows a lot of people in the community.
“I think my favorite part about the job is we never really have to ruin anybody’s day,” Vousboukis said. “We’re there to either help you out or we’ll be on our way.”
