Elmira fire chief looks forward to retirement

- After 38 years, Donald Harrison leaves post in midst of big changes.

The smile that lights Fire Chief Donald Harrison's face when he discusses his life after retirement is brighter than any fire the 38-year Elmira Fire Department veteran ever fought.

JEFF RICHARDS/Star-Gazette Elmira Fire Chief Don Harrison spends part of his last day at work at Station No. 3 on Miller Street.

"I am off to wherever the next adventure may take me," he said Friday during his last day on the job. "I'm blessed with good health. I still have a lot of energy and experience and knowledge that someone may want to put to good use."

Three difficult challenges came together in the past few months leading him to retire from a career that spanned five decades:

- The department is being downsized from 72 to 60 people.

- Seventeen or more veteran firefighters are leaving. Ten will have to be hired in their place.

- The Second Street headquarters will be reorganized as mold removal is completed.

"I looked at all these things coming together and thought this would be an ideal time for me to step down and let someone new step in to do the reorganization that needs to be done by April 1," he said.

The recommended 2004 budget called for cutting the size of the force. A retirement incentive package, offered to firefighters with 20 or more years of service, included lifetime health benefits for themselves and their spouses.

City Manager Samuel F. Iraci Jr. said the plan will save nearly $1 million for city taxpayers in eliminated positions and decreased salary costs.

The challenges that the city set before Harrison were not enough to entice him to stay as chief and restructure the department.

"I've dealt with staff reductions before," he said. "I've done this several times before with reorganizations and changes."

During his times as a firefighter, Harrison saw the force grow to as large 130 members. Now, as he leaves, it will fall to its smallest manpower levels ever at 60.

"Now with this, I have reached a point where it's time for somebody else to do this," he said.

The man set to take over is Acting Chief Thomas Murphy, a 33-year veteran named deputy chief in January. Murphy will be sworn in as acting chief on Monday.

Murphy postponed his own intended retirement to meet the challenges the department faces with what he calls "upbeat optimism."

"I look at it as a challenge to move this department forward from where we were a few months ago to where we will be a few months from now," Murphy said. "I am looking forward to giving it a try."

Murphy looks at the problems he faces as the acting chief as opportunities. For example, he said, with the retirement of many veterans, the new firefighters will offer new perspectives for the department.

Murphy said he is only looking ahead three months for the department, explaining there is enough encompassed in those three months to keep him busy.

In the next few months, Murphy will reorganize the structure of the department, hire firefighters to keep the staffing at 60 and prepare to reorganize the headquarters as soon as it reopens, likely at the end of March.

"With an 18 percent downsizing of the department, you are relying on the professional people of the department to make the recommendations to make that happen smoothly," Iraci said.

"We just can't continue to do things exactly the same as we always have."

Some decisions already have been made for how things will change.

As of April 1, the rescue van will no longer be in service, Murphy said.

Iraci said that now when a medical emergency call comes in, the van and either an engine or the aerial truck respond.

After April, only an engine or an aerial truck will answer a call, cutting the number of firefighters on the scene from five to three. He said the three firefighters who will respond are trained emergency medics.

Murphy said 12 firefighters now respond to structure fires. Under the cut, 10 will answer the calls at times.

"That loss will change the way we operate. It will not decrease the level of protection, and I don't see it decreasing the level of safety for the Elmira Fire Department or the citizens of Elmira," he said.

Understanding the city's financial constraints that brought about the staffing cuts, Murphy said he understands that the city needed to trim the department.

"It's a tough balancing act every year, and it gets tougher and tougher and I don't see that changing," he said.

Murphy said he won't stay in the department if the city cuts staffing levels any further, though.

"This department at a level of 60 people is going to be a lean-mean department," he said. "I wouldn't even want to attempt to run this department with fewer (than 60) people."

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