Iredell in Transition :: Powered by statesville.com and mooresvilletribune.com

After 43 years, Fitzgerald ready for retirement

Donna Swicegood | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) | Dec. 17, 2007

His younger counterparts, with a humorous tone, often ask Charles Fitzgerald if he took care of the horses in his early days with the Statesville Fire Department.

He hasn’t been a firefighter quite that long - just 43 years.

Fitzgerald will be hanging up his turnout gear for the last time later this month, ending a career as one of the longest-serving city employees. As his career winds down, Fitzgerald said the decision he made to follow Johnny Wilkie’s advice to apply for the fire department was the best choice he ever made. “I loved the job. I still love the job,” he said as he sat in his office at Fire Station One on Meeting Street.

Fitzgerald said Wilkie, a firefighter, talked to him while he was working at a grocery store in 1964. Fitzgerald, who was 21 years old at the time, wasn’t sure what direction he wanted to go career wise.

“Johnny came in and said why don’t you join the fire department,” Fitzgerald said. “I didn’t know if I could do it or not, but I figured I’d try for it.”

The decision to take the city’s hiring test propelled Fitzgerald to do something he had wanted to do for three years - get his GED. “I had quit high school, and you had to have a GED to get hired. So I got my GED and applied. It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I wouldn’t have finished my education without it,” he said.

In June 1964, Fitzgerald walked into the SFD for the first time as a firefighter, he said.

“For the first four or five years, there were a lot of senior people ahead of me. I didn’t drive the trucks. I didn’t do anything but grab the hose,” he said.

His years of having little to do didn’t last. He eventually did get to drive the trucks and spent several years as a driver.

Fitzgerald eventually became the training officer and shift commander, the position he holds now. He also served as the acting chief for a few months along the way.

“I probably learned more as a training officer than anything else I’ve done,” he said. Sometimes, those lessons were learned through sheer repetition.

“I’d be teaching the same class about nine times,” he said with a hearty laugh.

From the early days in the 1960s, Fitzgerald not only trained fellow firefighters, but he watched the advancements in equipment and technology, as well as the way things were done, change the face of firefighting.

“The biggest change,” he said, “is the mentality of firefighting. We were expected to give our lives to put out the fire. Now, we realize, if we’re going to survive, we’re going to have to help ourselves. We give more thought to safety than ever before.”

He said firefighters are prepared to sacrifice their own lives, but not just to save property - lives have to be on the line.

Unfortunately, Fitzgerald has seen his share of tragedies in the fire service.

“The saddest was a grandfather and a couple of grandkids,” he said.

But, he said, he can look back on some successful rescues - times he and his fellow firefighters made a difference.

“I remember the first, second and third people I pulled out (of a fire),” he said. One was a small girl, 6 or 7 years old. “I remember crawling in there and searching for her. I thought we’d found her, but it was a baby doll. Then I found her and carried her out. She survived. That was a good feeling. That charged me up for years to come.”

He also recalled a time when he and firefighter Nick Mullis grabbed a man who was trapped inside his burning house. “We were running out of there, and literally ran over a firefighter that was squatted down at the door to help us. That man weighed 200 pounds, but it didn’t feel like he weighed five,” he said.

Those are the stories Fitzgerald prefers to think about. “I try not to remember the bad ones,” he said.

In 43 years on the job, he didn’t come close to getting seriously hurt or killed on a fire scene. Instead, he said, his closest call came at the station when he was working on one of the engines.

“The brakes had locked up on the fire truck. I crawled underneath of the truck to release the pressure on the wheel cylinder,” he said. When he started releasing the fluid, the truck moved - just a fraction of an inch - but that was enough for Fitzgerald. “I cut it right back off,” he said.

He considers himself lucky. “I never had one where something fell or the floor gave out on me. Those are two things firefighters dread,” he said. “I did about slide off a roof one day. I dug my ax into the roof to keep from sliding off.”

Like all firefighters, Fitzgerald saw his share of comical things happen on calls. Once, he said, he and Mullis were inside a furniture factory that had reported a fire. The two became separated in the large plant, and soon Fitzgerald said, he heard Mullis call out “help me, help me. Something’s got me,” he said.

Fitzgerald said he found his way through the darkness, and came upon Mullis, wondering what could possibly have grabbed him in the plant. “His suspenders (which were hanging down) had gotten lodged on something,” he said.

Lloyd Ramsey, Iredell County fire marshal and former SFD firefighter, said Fitzgerald had his own moments that produced laughs and some tears, or at least a little steam.

“Fitz could break an anvil with a rubber mallet,” Ramsey said with a laugh. “We had gotten some new gauges and Fitz said ‘Let’s go test them.’ ” Within a few minutes, one of the gauges was broken, Ramsey said. “Crowson (former Chief Frank Crowson) was hot. You could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.”

Despite his tendency to break things, Fitzgerald was a valuable teacher, Ramsey said. “Fitz is a good one. He’s as good a man as I ever worked with. I learned a lot from Fitz,” he said.

That’s a sentiment shared by Chuck Gallyon, the retired fire marshal and former SFD firefighter. “There’s not anything bad I can say about Fitz,” he said.

While the SFD has been an important part of Fitzgerald’s life, it’s not the only thing. When not at the fire department, Fitz can often be found at Pla Mor Lanes.

“I bowl at least four times a week,” he said. He is so passionate about bowling that he has several bowling balls, and brings at least one with him in a special carrier. “I guess you could say I’m obsessed with bowling.”

He is also an active member of his church - Westwood Baptist. The Rev. Michael Hyde described Fitzgerald as a grandfather and father figure for many people in the church. He’s a deacon at the church, teaches Sunday School, sings in the choir and does about anything mechanical that needs to be done, Hyde said.

“On his days off, he comes in here to see if anything’s broken,” he said.

Hyde said Fitzgerald’s work schedule might have prevented him from being at services regularly, but he’s still a vital part of the church family.

“He’s a great guy,” Hyde said.

Fitzgerald also likes to ride his motorcycle, frequently taking his grandson with him.

He said he hopes to be able to dedicate more time to his bowling, his church and his family by retiring.

It’s a decision he considered a few years ago, when he was 62. But, with the cost of health insurance, he said, he would have had to take another job. “If I was going to have to work anyway, I figured I might as well stay here, doing what I love,” he said.

His friend and chief, the late Richard Campbell, who passed away in July, convinced him to stay.

“I had told everybody I was leaving at the end of the year. Richard pulled me aside and said, ‘You know, if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to. I don’t want you to leave,’ ” Fitzgerald said.

That was enough for Fitzgerald. “He never knew how much I appreciated that,” he said.

Now, things are different. He said he believes it’s time to go and allow the younger people in the department to move up the ladder.

Statesville Mayor Costi Kutteh said people like Fitzgerald are hard to replace. “He’s been a very dedicated and loyal firefighter,” he said. “He’s provided a lot of leadership to the younger people there through the years.”

Fitzgerald said he has never regretted the decision to leave his grocery store job and put on the turnout gear. “I’ve had a good career through the years. I have friends who worked at other places, and they didn’t have the job security I had. I am thankful that I’ve never been laid off from work.”

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