SAUGUS — A 23-year veteran of the Saugus Fire Department has earned the title of Lieutenant.
Bill Cross has spent nearly two dozen years serving the town of Saugus as a firefighter. On Wednesday morning, he was promoted to lieutenant after earning the top grade on the state Fire Lieutenant Exam for the position.
“The thing I love about being a firefighter is that no day is the same,” said Cross. “When you come to work, it’s not like you’re going to do a regular job where your day will be cut and try. And I just love helping people.”
Cross is waiting to be certified by the state for the promotion to become official.
“This is a provisional job, but it’s going to be permanent in a few weeks,” said Cross. “When you’re a firefighter, you worry about everybody, of course. But now I’ll be in charge of a crew and I will be responsible for them. I have to take more of a step back and take a look at the big picture, for sure.”
Cross is a 2008 recipient of the Medal of Valor for his rescue of a double amputee
while he was off-duty.
“It couldn’t happen to a better guy and it definitely is the right time in his career and he has the right amount of experience in firefighting to be a front-line supervisor,” said Fire Chief Michael Newbury. “He is ready and he is prepared and I think the department will be better for it.”
Cross has given educational presentations and Student Awareness of Fire Education programs to elementary school students, seniors, and others for almost two dozen years, which is something he said he thoroughly enjoys.
“We do a career day and on Founder’s Day we have an open house,” said Cross. “The public education part is a huge thing and it has made a huge difference in making people safer, in my opinion.”
Just last week, he visited the Saugus Senior Center to give talk to elders about the importance of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
He volunteers for Saugus High School’s annual Shadow Day, showing teens the ropes. He has seen at least three students grow up to be Saugus firefighters, he said.
Cross has been the union president of Saugus Firefighters Local #1003 for 19 years, following in the footsteps of his father, Chelsea Fire Capt. Bill Cross, Jr. who spent much of his career in the union.
He has been advocating for a third fire station to cover the west side of town with easy access to Route 1 North and South for several years. It’s a fight he said dates back to the early 1970s under former Fire Chief Thomas Nolan, but is even more crucial today with the mixed-use developments planned for Route 1.
In 2003, Cross sponsored three Town Meeting articles in an effort to bring the new station to fruition. A debt exclusion for a new ladder truck and a second debt exclusion for a new, $500,000 firehouse both passed. A third article for a Proposition 2 1/2 override to fund the hiring of 12 new firefighters failed.
In a statement, Town Manager Scott Crabtree said he has no doubt that Cross will continue to be an enormous asset to the public safety department and the residents of Saugus.
