New Bedford fire chief leaves the ‘family business’
Effective midnight Saturday, the 58-year-old Gomes officially retired from the
On Friday, he relived some of his past when he served as a tillerman on Ladder 1 at the downtown station and operated the back of a ladder truck from the same station once again for about a 20-mile ride. "I went out the way I started," he said.
Gomes has been on medical leave since December and
"The family business" is what Gomes calls the
"We accomplished some great things," he said. Topping the list was getting off the federal SAFER grant (Staffing for Adequate Fire & Emergency Response grants from the
"It's one of the reasons I decided to retire -- that was accomplished," he said. "I didn't want to see them laid off. I was terrified of that. I did not want any layoffs on my watch."
He was "very happy" to see the groundbreaking of the new public safety center in the
He was the driving force behind the
Despite challenging economic times for the city, 70 percent of the
Under his leadership, the NBFD became an "all hazard agency," he said. "The list of things we do today versus what we did 9 years ago are very different," he said. "I tried to leave it (the
Gomes thanked his administrative staff who helped him in his tenure as fire chief. "They are second to none and I could not have done this without them," he said.
Gomes said he is glad to see an end to being on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. "I can't say that being fire chief has been fun," he said. "It's extremely challenging. It never ends and now my work is done."
The retired chief said he is going to take the next year to figure out what he wants to do next. "I will take up golf and see what opportunities present themselves," he said.
He intends to "live life," and become a snowbird, staying at a vacation home in
Gomes' wife, Deborah, a
"Eight and a half years in this position wears you down," Gomes said.
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