"You Have To Love It"

South Boston Fire Chief William Murray

'You Have To Love It'

After battling lethal flames, choking smoke and clearing a barrage of training and administrative hurdles for almost 34 years, South Boston Fire Chief William Murray is retiring this summer.
He announced his August retirement during South Boston Council’s Monday night meeting.
“It has been a joy working with the town and the public,” Chief Murray told councilmen.
Town officials described Murray’s legacy as leaving “a fire department in fantastic shape,” one with a youth movement and ably trained men.
Indeed, the fire department has changed dramatically during Murray’s years.
“It was in the mid-80s that we began first responder calls, and that has grown and grown,” said the chief yesterday.
Last year, the department answered a total of 1,651 EMS calls — 1,198 in the town and 453 in the county — and 301 fire calls, according to Murray.
Today it takes 400 hours of training to reach Instructor I status, and the chief said that takes about two years.
But the soul of the department is unchanging.
“You have to love it,” said Murray.
Love of job covers a multitude of tasks at the fire station.
Years and years of training, the uncertainty that accompanies each alarm, the hours spent away from families, and dealing with stress “as calmly as you can.”
For Murray, several fires still linger in his memory.
One Sunday when he was leaving church he heard the alarm.
When he arrived at the scene, he saw three firemen sitting in the yard crying.
“They were crying because upstairs a granddaddy got two grandchildren out on the roof, but one of them went back in.”
Neither the grandfather nor the firemen could get to the child.
“The fire being so hot, they couldn’t get up there, and they knew a child was up there. They had done the best they could but couldn’t get up there ...,” recalled Murray, his voice breaking.
Other memories include a house fire where no one was hurt, but conditions were brutal.
“It was Christmas Eve and the alarm came about 11:30 p.m.,” began the chief. It would be almost 6 a.m. before some of the firemen got relief from the brutal cold.
“It felt like 15 degrees and the wind was blowing. Everything froze,” recalled Murray. “We had to pull people’s gloves back to get firemen loose from lines they were holding.”
Murray was not with the fire department during the tragic Rose’s fire in downtown South Boston, but he was there for the tobacco warehouse fire on Wilborn Avenue.
“Our fear was that it might jump into the Crowell Building and hit the next block,” recalled Murray.
From the beginning, the warehouse fire strategy was to “keep it in these walls if we can.”
Murray credits his fellow firemen with the South Boston Fire Department’s success.
“I have just had some good people all through my years, good to work with, easy to work with,” he said yesterday.
Today, the fire department is a force of 36, has a budget of $557,000 and has six vehicles.
The availability of water, new equipment and training has made all of the difference, according to Murray.
With a smile, Murray recalls the tale of the department’s 1954 Ford fire truck and a kid on a bicycle who passed the fire truck going up the street.
That doesn’t happen today, not with two sleek pumpers, one equipment truck, a brush truck and one EMS vehicle that “runs all the time,” according to Chief Murray. South Boston also houses the county’s ladder truck.

It’s been almost a half century since Murray, a young Harmony lad, was so pleased and proud that he had a pack of beagles to hunt rabbits.
“That was the joy of anybody’s life, your own dogs and a single barrel, 20-gauge Stevens,” he added with a smile.
Later, he would became an avid fisherman and deer hunter, but these days he is a man of the links, a golfer by choice.
Job stability, camaraderie and love of job drew a young William Murray to the fire department.
And it is a job he still recommends.
“When the alarm sounds, firemen are no longer a group. All focus is on getting the job done,” he emphasized.
But he describes his own time at the department as a joy. “And I’ve had some good town managers,” he said.
Current Town Manager Ted Daniel is one who will be sad to see Murray retire.
“I am sad he’s retiring,” Daniel said yesterday. “He’s contributed so much to the community and he’s done so much in putting together a professional fire department and enabling the volunteer fire department to be second to none.
“I’m going to be happy for him as he gets to enjoy his retirement, but I am going to be sad every day I don’t see him at work,” added Daniel. “In the end we just want what’s best for William and his wife Ramona. I think a lot of him.”
When he retires, Murray looks forward to golfing and to spending time with his family, which includes his wife, son Willie Robert and daughter Melinda Sue Conner and three grandchildren.

Article courtesy of Gazette-Virginian article , Wednesday, April 11, 2007.