PORTLAND – Fire Chief Fred LaMontagne announced Thursday that he will step down in April, after leading the state’s largest municipal fire department for 10 years.
LaMontagne, 48, has served in the department for 27 years, rising through the ranks from firefighter to become the fourth-longest serving chief in the department’s history.
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His tenure has coincided with the post-Sept. 11 emphasis on fire departments planning better for natural and manmade disasters.
“He’s done a fantastic job for the city, in my opinion,” City Manager Mark Rees said. “He has some very good high-level staff who can keep the department moving in a positive direction while we go through the search for a new chief.”
LaMontagne’s announcement signals yet another departure from the city’s management team.
Rees, who been the city manager for only six months, is considering finalists for the job of police chief, and a search is under way for a new planning director. Later this year, the school board will hire a new superintendent.
Rees said the departments have good leadership and he doesn’t believe operations will suffer. At the same time, he downplayed any benefit to picking his own department heads.
“I don’t see it as my personal team,” he said. “It’s a group of highly skilled people who can serve the community the best way we can.”
Eric Conrad, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association, said the turnover in top management underscores how important succession planning is for cities and towns.
“There are a lot of department heads — fire chiefs, police chiefs, public works directors — who are in their 50s and 60s,” Conrad said. “Maine is getting older, and municipal officials are, too.”
LaMontagne said his decision has nothing to do with Rees’ management, nor is it related to the recent controversy over the department’s fireboat.
The City of Portland IV sustained $54,000 worth of damage in October when it hit an underwater object in Portland Harbor while civilians, including firefighters’ relatives, were on board for what was described as a training mission.
LaMontagne said he is looking forward to finding a new career but he has nothing lined up.
He became a firefighter in 1984 and made captain in 2000, rising quickly to deputy chief five months later and acting chief six months after that, the month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
LaMontagne then oversaw the coordination of communications and hazardous-materials response with neighboring communities.
He said his career has been rewarding and demanding.
“I’ve seen a lot of tremendous destruction and a lot of saves and great work,” he said.
He recalled several noteworthy fires, including one of the city’s deadliest, an arson in 1992 that destroyed an apartment building, killing four people including a 10-month-old girl.
“For all the calls that go great, there are those that, despite our best effort, don’t have a positive outcome for a family,” he said.
Besides fires, firefighters respond to medical calls and car crashes.
“There’s a lot of tragedy,” LaMontagne said. “Not only myself, but every firefighter, takes a little bit with them for the rest of their lives.”
The fire that engulfed the vacant Jordan’s Meats plant in 2010 and the series of 15 car fires in one day in 2008, set by an arsonist, illustrated the department’s ability to react and adapt quickly, he said.
Historically, fire chiefs have come from within the department’s command staff, but Rees said he plans a national search similar to the one under way for a new police chief.
LaMontagne said the city will be in good hands.
“I’m not the one that extinguishes fires,” he said. “It’s the men and women in the street that provide medical services and put out fires. My job is to support them.”
Staff Writer David Hench can be contacted at 791-6327 or at:
dhench@pressherald.com
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