LYNN — Rocco M. (Rocky) Brienzo seemed a little uncomfortable at the 100th birthday party the fire department threw in his honor Friday morning at City Hall.
But only a little.
A current member of the force asked him “what’s the one thing you never thought you’d see?”
Brienzo didn’t have to think too hard.
“This,” he said, waving his free hand around the room. “I never expected this in a million years. It’s overwhelming.”
Brienzo, who is the oldest living Lynn Fire Department retiree, was just as direct about his 32 years as a firefighter, and about the key to his longevity.
“There are no secrets,” he said. “It’s what God gave me. He gave me the best job I could have ever had.”
Chief Stephen Archer said that the department will name its new rescue boat after Brienzo.
Several members of Brienzo’s family were on hand, including his sister Mary Darcangelo and her husband Michael; his niece Marylin Armstrong and his sister-in-law Mary Brienzo.
Brienzo also had two brothers the force: James and Joseph.
Brienzo, a World War II veteran who was stationed in the Pacific (New Guinea), returned home after the war and took the exam to become a firefighter. He passed it, he said, but at 5 feet, 4 inches, he was an inch too short to qualify.
“There were two of us who were too short,” he said. “Somehow, they (the city) passed legislation to lower the standard to 5-4 and we both got on.”
This was in 1948, when the fire department chopped four hours off what was a 52-hours-per-week job. That meant the city needed more firefighters, and Brienzo was one of 130 who were hired.
“It was wonderful to work with the men I worked with,” he said. “I was doing work I was unfamiliar with, but I grew to love it, and we became a real family. I had two families, the one at home, and the one at the fire department.”
Brienzo’s wife, Marguerite, to whom he was married for 75 years, died in 2017. He has three children: a son, Rick; and two daughters, Marianne Allard and Terri Goodrich.
Brienzo spent 13 years as an active firefighter and the final 19 years of his career as a mechanic. At first, he wasn’t sure he wanted to do it.
“My friend on the force, George Miles, told me I should take it, so I signed up just before the deadline,” he said. “I ended up finishing at the top of the list.”
However, two disabled veterans were also in line for the position. The first one got the job and quit after a month, and the second one passed it up.
“So, I got the job,” he said.
The funniest part of him getting the job, he said, was the party his friends threw for him.
“George’s wife, Mae, made a cake for me and on top of it, there was a big truck, with a little man under it. That was me. That really made me laugh.”
Others who worked with him also recalled funny moments with him. Councilor-at-Large Buzzy Barton recalled helping Brienzo fix a flag pole outside the firehouse. Brienzo was up on a ladder and he was holding it.
“All of a sudden, someone sticks his head out the window and says, ‘Hey, look, it’s Rocky and Bullwinkle.’ I laughed so hard tears were coming down. But Rocky was mad. He didn’t think it was funny.”
During Brienzo’s career, he remembers one particular fire that he fought alongside Miles.
“It was a dry cleaner on Union Street, and the smoke was so thick you couldn’t even see your hand in front of you,” he said. “I was next to George, and was carrying a firehose. I told him to stay close to the nozzle because that’s where the air was. We walked all the way to the back room, and it turned out to be this little fire. But it gave off so much smoke.”
Although his career coincided with a particularly active cycle of fires, Brienzo never appreciated the “Arson City” tag people put on it.
“Honestly,” he said, “I called it, ‘Lynn, Lynn, where the saints come in.’ I believed it then, and I believe it now.”
