01940_Summer_2019 WEB

14 | 01940
They take the call
for Lynnfield
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
The running joke around Lynnfield's
two firehouses is that Steven Furey
has never slept more than two hours
in a stretch for the last 40 years.
Furey, the town's senior firefighter, has
logged 47 years serving Lynnfield and he
worked 37 years as an electronic analyst
for General Electric. He managed to pack
two careers into one by juggling his GE
job with duties as a paid call firefighter.
Since 1902, when Lynnfield switched
from a volunteer to a call department,
the town has relied on residents like
Furey who step aside from their jobs and
families at a moment's notice to answer
the "tone" — the signal broadcast over a
hand-held radio or mobile device calling
them to fires or other emergencies.
That call came 2,000 times in 2018,
making last year the town's busiest for fire
and medical emergency responses. Fire Chief
Glenn Davis attributes the record call volume
to the addition of commercial and
residential development to
Lynnfield, including
MarketStreet
and
new construction on Route 1.
The department has nine full-time
professional firefighters, including Davis,
who topped off his 30-years of call
service to the town when he was named
chief in January. The department has
35 call firefighters, including Furey and
town professional Firefighter Matthew
Nichols, who started working as a call
firefighter seven years ago while in college.
Nine department members are assigned
seven days a week 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., to both
"south company" in the Main Street fire station
and fire headquarters on Summer Street.
One firefighter works the night shift
assigned to the ambulance based at
Summer Street. Town dispatchers sound
the "tone" when fire and ambulance calls
come in and call firefighters assigned
to work specific shifts roll out of bed
or leave their workplace or dinner
tables to respond to the call.
"It's a hard balance,"
said Nichols, "There
are a lot of
nights