Fire Chief Returns To Work

Fire Chief Returns To Work Ares has recovered from spine injury

+ click to enlarge News staff photo by Andrew Mansfield Fire Capt. Greg Lagoy, left, stands with Fire Chief Richard Ares on the chief’s first day back on the job after suffering a fractured spine while fighting a July fire in Templeton. Andrew Mansfield Reporter GARDNER  After recovering from a fractured spine, Gardner Fire Chief Richard Ares returned to work on Monday for the first time in five months. Despite the occasion, it was largely just another day on the job for the firefighter of 42 years. “It’s kind of just been right back into it. The captain (Greg Lagoy) did a good job keeping up with things,” he said. On July 3, the Fire De­partment was on a mutual aid call to help put out a fire in a Templeton home and Mr. Ares saw an opportunity to use a hose on the porch to help extinguish the fire in the kitchen. While he still doesn’t know exactly what happened, the pressure in the hose unexpectedly rose, pushing his helmet off and catapulting him in the air toward the porch railing and an 8-foot fall down to the pavement, knocking him unconscious. “The last thing I remember is trying to get the nozzle shut down. Next thing I know, I was flat on my back,” he said. Mr. Ares was taken on a Life Flight to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, having suffered a laceration on his head that required 10 staples and fracturing three vertebrae in his spine. Capt. Lagoy recalled being at another area of the fire, but hearing through the radio that a firefighter was down. When he rushed over to see what was wrong, Mr. Ares was lying on the ground surrounded by paramedics, though he was relieved to see that he was moving his hands and feet. “That was the only time in my career where that was that serious of an injury to one of our own,” said Mr. Lagoy. Fortunately, Mr. Ares only suffered a minor concussion from the head injury and the prognosis from doctors was that his spine could make a full recovery. Still, he faced a long rehab process that left the department without its top leader. With 27 years of experience as a firefighter himself, Mr. Lagoy was asked to fill the chief’s role. During Mr. Ares’s absence, Mr. Lagoy essentially had to do two jobs in one, as his normal duties as fire captain still needed his attention. Mr. Lagoy said that his job as fire captain is normally tailored to handling the “day-to-day operations” of the department such as handling personnel, scheduling, inspections and fleet maintenance. The position of fire chief meant he had to manage the “bigger picture” as well, dealing with payroll, budgets and expenditures. “It was a lot more hours; every day I was here early and here late. I accepted that was my role for the time being,” he said. “Greg Lagoy stepped up and performed admirably in the chief’s absence,” said Mayor Mark Hawke. While Mr. Lagoy said the task of performing double duty was “the biggest challenge,” knowing that Mr. Ares was coming back “made it a little easier.” Even with his injury, Mr. Ares kept tabs on department business via email and Mr. Lagoy would visit him in his home. Once he could take off the brace he was using, he was able to come into the office for visits. “We had a good open line of communication between the two of us,” said Mr. Ares. After being in the trauma center at UMass Memorial Medical Care Center for a week, he spent another week in Worcester at the Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital before returning for additional care in Gardner at Heywood Hospital. He began going to physical therapy twice a week and committed himself to daily exercises, walking as much as possible on the advice of doctors. What was initially a six- to eight-month recovery time frame was shortened to five months with consistent work. “The care I got has all been excellent. That’s what has helped me to be back to where I am. I progressed faster than even I thought I was going to,” he said. During his time rehabbing, Mr. Ares received get well cards from people not just in Gardner, but around the state and out of state as well. Once the news got out that he had been injured, the outpouring of appreciation and wishes for a speedy recovery began. “The support was tremendous, from the community and beyond. It’s been pretty humbling for me,” he said. Both Mr. Ares and Mr. Lagoy know that potentially putting their lives at risk on the job is what they signed up for, even though on a day-to-day basis a firefighter cannot be consumed by the possibility of injury. “You don’t expect it, but that’s our job, to expect the unexpected,” said Mr. Lagoy. For Mr. Ares, while he was unlucky to be injured in the fire, he was lucky that it was not worse. He said he very well could have broken his neck had he been wearing an air tank because it would have caused greater whiplash in his neck than landing on his back without equipment like he did. Now that he is back on the job, he said he has no limitations, and if needed, would help out in a fire the same way he did back in July in Templeton. He said the hardest part of returning has been realizing that now he is older, the younger firefighters should be the first ones to handle the most-physical aspects of the job. “The chief is a fireman’s fireman, he leads from the front. He’s a wealth of knowledge and well respected by the guys, and a teacher at the academy,” said Mr. Hawke.