By Joyce Tsai
The Lowell Sun
TEWKSBURY, Mass. — After more than 32 years of battling blazes and hustling to life-threatening emergencies, Fire Chief Richard Mackey is hanging up his fire hat and sailing into retirement.
Mackey’s official retirement is July 11, but his last day on the job was Friday; he will be taking unused leave.
“I will miss most working with all the great people here,” Mackey said. That camaraderie built among firefighters is key because they rely on each other so much in dangerous situations, he said.
Mackey said he came to the decision to retire this year, after 32 1/2 years of service, because, “I had the years and age.” Firefighters can retire at age 55 and after 32 years, and he just turned 55.
Deputy Fire Chief Michael Hazel will succeed Mackey as fire chief, and Capt. Albert Vasas will become deputy fire chief.
Mackey’s been making the rounds, saying his farewells to his team for several weeks.
So what’s the plan now? Well, first on the agenda: Relaxing on Virginia Beach for a few weeks, followed by a cross-country trip in the fall, he said.
“After that, I don’t have any plans,” he said. “We’ll see how it all turns out, and then I’ll kind of reassess things.”
Public service runs in the Mackey bloodline. His father was police chief. His brother, John, was both police chief and a selectman. His uncles were firefighters. His son, Brian Mackey, is a Tewksbury firefighter.
Mackey said that in his 30-plus years as a firefighter, there have been plenty of dramatic events.
“I was only two weeks on the job, and there was a major fire at a lumberyard off of East Street,” he said. “And it stands out like yesterday. That one always sticks out in my mind.”
It was a 12-hour fire, he recalled, and it held the mortal threat of spreading to other buildings and devastating all around it.
“I remember the difficulty of fighting it and how humbling and hard it was,” he said. “It’s dangerous work. You don’t know what kind of conditions you are facing when you go in. It’s unknown.”
And that’s why teamwork is so important, he said: “Everyone has a job and your lives depend on each other.”
“I’ll definitely miss being with everybody,” he said.
“I feel proud to have worked in the town of Tewksbury, the same town I grew up, went to school and lived in my whole life,” he said. “To have the honor to work for the town all these years is tremendous.”
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