Allan Appel Photo
The mayor and chief shake after installation, with the chief’s dad, John Alston, Sr., in background.
Fidelity, consummate professionalism, dedication to education. Expertise that includes not only firefighting and fire prevention, but also techniques to combat terrorism and deal with weapons of mass destruction.
These were some of the qualities that got new Fire Chief John Alston, Jr. the job for which he was sworn in Thursday evening at City Hall.
Fire service officers from Hartford, Jersey City, New York, and Chicago were on hand.
About 150 people, including his family and officers from as far away as Chicago, hailed the new chief in a ceremony of pomp, song, and warmth.
After taking the oath from Mayor Toni Harp, Alston said to his officers, “Be realistic, pragmatic, and also an optimist. If you can do that for me, I’ll never have to give you an order.”
He called New Haven “truly a great melting pot of a city,” and then noted warning signs on the horizon.
“The faucet [of funding] is going to go off. We may have to mange with less,” he said, in which he case he vowed to be an advocate for the fire and uniformed services.
International Association of Fire Fighters Local (IAFF) 825 President Frank Ricci, who has had a contentious relationship with chiefs past, said that he has been meeting once a week with the chief.
“He has a fidelity to dialogue. We meet once a week, and those meetings are productive and enjoyable, and [even] fun,” Ricci reported.
The oath is taken.
After words of praise from Jersey City Fire Chief Darren Rivers — for whom Alston most recently served as chief of staff — the emcee for the installation proceedings, New Haven Fire Commissioner Bill Celentano, quipped that Jersey City. has a lot of fires “This will feel like retirement,” he said of Alston’s New Haven post.
“This isn’t retirement,” retorted Ricci, who cited an explosion at a chemical plant near State Street on the Hamden border, at which Alston had taken charge earlier in the day.
The installation ceremony, complete with bagpipes and officers in full white-gloved uniforms, was a kind of second installation. Alston has already been on the job since October, and over the past two months “there’s already been positive impact,” said Board of Alders Majority Leader Al Paolillo.
He will be gone with in three years.