By DANIEL KITTREDGE "Tonight's program is running just a little behind - maybe 13 to 15 months behind," Scott Brown, deacon of the Cranston Fire Department, told those in attendance for last week's promotional and swearing-in ceremony at Cranston High
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“Tonight’s program is running just a little behind – maybe 13 to 15 months behind,” Scott Brown, deacon of the Cranston Fire Department, told those in attendance for last week’s promotional and swearing-in ceremony at Cranston High School East.
After all, he added: “There was a little snag like a global pandemic.”
Twenty new firefighters from the department’s class of 2019 were celebrated during the event, while more than a dozen others who have been promoted during the past two years were also recognized. Scores of family members, friends and community leaders filled the East auditorium to take part in the occasion.
The department’s newest firefighters, Brown said, are “the best of the best, and they could have worked in any fire department in Rhode Island.”
“They chose to be Cranston firefighters,” he added. “They chose to join the ranks of the very best.”
Chief James Warren, who assumed the department’s top job earlier this year, recognized his immediate predecessors, former chiefs William McKenna and Stephen MacIntosh, who were both in the audience.
He praised the department’s newest firefighters, who were pressed into duty more quickly and in different ways as a result of the pandemic. He noted that the department ran additional rescues and helped vaccinate 4,300 city residents.
The chief also praised the recent promotion recipients, calling them “truly the new leaders on this job.”
“We don’t do this for the glory,” he said. “We do this to help our city’s residents at their most vulnerable moments.”
Brown also gave special recognition to Deputy Chief Paul Casey, the city’s EMS director, who served as emcee of the promotional and swearing-in ceremony.
“There was no way to prepare for COVID-19. The magnitude of the pandemic and the ever-changing guidance and instructions were so challenging to all of us,” Brown said. “Thank God for the leadership of the Cranston surgeon general, Deputy Chief Paul Casey.”
During the course of the ceremony, Casey noted that one of the night’s honorees was absent – but for very good reason.
“We’ve got one scratch from the roster … Private [Joseph] Lang and his wife decided to have a baby tonight,” Casey said, drawing applause and cheers from the audience.
Toward the end of the ceremony, firefighters Matthew Howard and Zachary Kirkwood filled in for Lang, presenting a plaque to the class of 2019’s instructors at the fire academy.
The Rhode Island Professional Firefighters Pipe and Drum Corps led the procession into the night’s ceremony, while the department’s Honor Guard posted the colors. Valerie Remillard sang the national anthem.
Mayor Ken Hopkins and a number of members of the City Council were in attendance for the event.
Assistant Chief Daniel Marcinko
Deputy Chief Harvey Flanders
Deputy Chief James Woyciechowski
Capt. Robert Nyzio Jr.
Lt. David Brouillard
Lt. Scott Cardon
Lt. Timothy Castelli
Lt. Timothy Colantonio
Lt. David DiDino
Lt. Jason Lee
Lt. Joseph Lupino
Lt. David Neri
Lt. John Nottell Jr.
Lt. Kevin O’Leary
Lt. Nelson Pedro
Lt. Michael Rivelli
Lt. Mark Walsh
Matthew Howard
Michael Morgan
David Northup
Andrew Campbell
Daniel Burke
William Barrett
Andrew Bouchard
Joshua Reid
Michael DiGiulio
Zachary Kirkwood
John Carter
Eugene Benedetti
Michael Igoe
Patrick Igoe
Mason Keach
Joseph Kang
Benjamin Kowalik
Jonathan Vito
Tyler Duffy
Nicholas Zambarano
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