By George Hunter
The Detroit News
DEARBORN, Mich. — The city’s firefighters are burning mad over Fire Chief Joseph Murray’s decision to ban fire trucks from a deputy chief’s retirement party at a Dearborn bar Thursday — a break from a popular tradition, the chief’s critics said.
Asked about his decision, Murray initially replied: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
During a telephone interview with The Detroit News, he later changed his story, saying he barred the fire rigs from providing the ceremonial “last ride” to retiring Deputy Fire Chief Laura Ridenour because of the location of her party: the Biergarten, a bar on Michigan Ave.
“We send rigs to parties if they’re held at the station, but not at a bar,” Murray said. “That’s never been done that I know of.”
Ridenour, along with the current and former presidents of the International Association of Firefighters Local 412 union, insisted that’s not true. Bruce Hamilton, the former local president, sent The Detroit News multiple photographs and videos of recent retirement parties at the Biergarten that were visited by Dearborn Fire Department rigs.
During his interview, Murray provided a third reason for barring the rigs: "(Retiring employees) have to request the rigs,” he said. “She never requested it.”
Ridenour, who spent 24 years with the department, said she doesn’t know why the chief made the decision to break from the tradition.
“He doesn’t talk to me,” she said of the chief. “The last time I spoke with him was November, and that was just a word or two. He’s not the kind of person who asks how you’re doing, if you need anything, or talk to you at all. And if you get on his wrong side, he’s retaliatory. I wonder if this is because I took medical leave (to care for her sick husband). I really have no idea what he was thinking.”
Jeff Lentz, president of Local 412, said the tradition of fire rigs lining up outside retirement parties at bars and other locations started years ago.
“Back when it was a requirement that firefighters live in the city, the rigs would drive by their houses for the last ride,” Lentz said. “But when that requirement was dropped, and people started moving out of the city, they started doing it at bars. The Biergarten is where probably 98% of the parties are held.”
Employees of the bar, which is owned by a former Dearborn firefighter, declined to comment. Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud’s spokesman did not respond to a call seeking comment.
Lentz said there is no policy requiring members to request rigs, as the fire chief claimed.
“An email went out to the entire department about the party — and there is a policy saying members have to read their emails every day,” said Lentz, whose union did not represent Ridenour at the time of her retirement because she was in management.
Bruce Hamilton, former president of the IAFF Local 412, said he has attended multiple parties at the Biergarten that were visited by the city’s fire rigs.
“I can’t think of a single instance where this was not done,” said Hamilton, who retired in 2011. “That’s just the way it’s always been: The rigs pull up on the street, and the members get a ride on the rig to celebrate their career.
“Not only were the rigs at the Biergarten — Murray was at those parties, too,” he said.
The rancor over the retirement party isn’t the first time Murray has clashed with the rank-and-file. In 2024, Michigan Employment Relations Commission Judge David Peltz ruled against the fire chief after he tried to ban the union from passing out and storing ceremonial axes in the firehouse.
That flap started in 2022, when the union declined to present an ax to a retiring deputy chief because he was not part of their bargaining unit, according to the complaint. In response, Murray sent an email saying the practice was banned.
“We will no longer be allowing the Union’s retirement axes to be presented at any of the fire stations or FD Property,” Murray wrote in the Feb. 11, 2022, email. “Many of our employees including myself were pretty dismayed that an axe wasn’t provided to (the retiring deputy chief), and I feel presenting axes to some people and not others is divisive.”
In his decision, the judge wrote: “Murray characterized the Union’s decision as a ‘petty move’ and asserted that it created an ‘us-against-them type thing with the Union and the administration and that’s really something we’re really trying to combat over the last few years and I felt this was kind of taking a step back.’ According to Murray, the Union’s refusal to present an axe to (the retiring deputy chief) caused employees to become ‘very upset’ and resulted in ‘a lot of chaos.’ ... None of the other witnesses who testified in this matter corroborated Murray’s assertion that Charging Party’s actions were damaging to morale.”
The judge added: “I did not find Chief Murray to be a trustworthy witness.”
Murray was ordered to “cease and desist from retaliating against, or interfering with ... employees’ exercise of rights ... to engage in lawful concerted activities including, but not limited to, presenting ceremonial axes and wall plaques to retiring employees and storing personal items in their offices and workstations.”
Ridenour’s party was held Thursday night at the Biergarten without fire rigs showing up.
“After 24 years with the department,” Ridenour said, “for the chief to do something so vindictive is disheartening and disappointing.”
Is barring fire apparatus from a retirement party a reasonable leadership decision — or an unnecessary break from tradition?
How important are retirement traditions like a “last ride” to firehouse morale and department culture?
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