Opinion: How Fortunate We Are to Have Chief Dick Hurlburt Lead Walpole’s Volunteer Fire/EMS Service

            Wow! Do you know how fortunate all of us in Walpole are to have Fire Chief Dick Hurlburt and our crack team of over 40 volunteer firefighters and EMS providers?

            Having sat in last night for the Walpole Leadership Academy’s final session of the first half of the year’s curriculum, I was impressed all over again with the leadership demonstrated by Dick and further described by Bill Carmody, an Academy class member and eight-year volunteer firefighter himself who moderated the session.

*       Dick Hurlburt has been our Chief for 12 years and served another multi-year stint before cutting back to being a regular volunteer for several years when his children were growing up.  Dick’s dad was chief for 22 years (and still helps out!), and his grandfather was chief for 5 years.

*       Dick—and his assistant, Mark Houghton—plan, schedule and lead the extensive, year-round training program the department keeps beginning, intermediate and advanced firefighters and EMS crews up to date with the latest techniques.  They also train the men to maintain all the complex equipment the department uses from tankers to ladder trucks, from emergency rescue equipment to outboard motors, to high-tech medical equipment.

*        Dick supervises the 24/7/365 on-duty status of the department, seeing that highly skilled teams are ready on a moment’s notice to save US and our property from fires and other emergencies.  They receive between 200 and 300 ambulance calls per year and over 100 fire calls!  (Incidentally, our volunteers DO get paid a small wage for time they are actually answering calls.  Unlike past tradition, local employers actually dock their pay for hours they are away working to protect us.)

*  Dick is also the town's emergency preparedness manager.

It’s difficult to capture in words the level of commitment, professionalism and enthusiasm Dick Hurlburt embodies when speaking about the department.  But when you see his passion in person and realize that Walpole has more volunteer firefighters than most surrounding communities combined, you know where that level of group dedication comes from. 

And you know the type of leadership Dick provides when he answers the question “What’s the best part of the work for you?”  with “It's when I see the younger guys—and the veterans as well—jump in and do their jobs really well automatically and without any further instruction or direction!”

What a lesson in leadership!  What a terrific example! What a great way to end the first half-year of the Walpole Leadership Academy!  Chuck Bingaman