MA Fire Chiefs Group Swears in New President

For the past five years, Needham Fire Chief Dennis Condon has been responsible for keeping the town safe from fire. Now, he'll be doing the same for the entire state.

Condon was sworn in as president of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts on Tuesday, an organization comprised of fire service professionals that works to keep firefighters and communities across the commonwealth fire safe, through education, advocacy and lobbying.

"It's an honor but it's also humbling, because there's a lot of people counting on me," Condon said.

As president, Condon will be responsible for coordinating all of the organization's agendas, such as holding professional development conferences, spreading new ideas and inventions across departments and mobilizing supportive efforts for large scale incidents, like the Merrimack Valley gas explosions that occurred last September.

He said his biggest goal upon taking the position is to improve the communication between firefighters and administrators in order to streamline new policies and changes.

"The biggest thing I'd like to do is promote a greater collaboration between labor and management, so that we have greater success and spend less time bickering," Condon said. "There's a lot of delay if they don't. If you're trying to institute something and you're not communicating well, people are going to have objections and fear of change, so it's my hope that we can better those relationships."

Before his selection, Condon served as first vice president for FCAM and was on the board of directors representing the metro fire chiefs. He was chosen for the role over Auburn Fire Chief Joseph Morabito, both of whom ran after the previous second vice president "had a change in job status," according to Condon.

Condon said that with his selection as president, the Needham Fire Department will be able to further improve its protection of the town, due to FCAM being on the cutting edge of firefighting innovation and technology.

"The biggest thing about being involved in any of these associations is that you stay at the forefront; you're seeing what's going on early on, so you can bring that back to the town so the town's better served," he said.

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