Truth And Competence

“Fire Chief Paul J. Perrotti said he found the new policy to be a waste of 

time.( Gee, correct me if I'm wrong but didn't he precipitate the whole 

mess by arbitrarily taking down a former chiefs picture?)

“If that’s what they’re going to do, I’ll follow their ruling, ( HE  blames 

"them"?) but it’s stupid, ( well, no doubt he's an expert on that topic ) it’s 

crazy, ( ibid ) and they should worry about other things like our aging 

apparatus and radio system,” Perrotti said. ( we're worried about getting 

competent leadership in the fire department )“Fire department members 

made a decision. It wasn’t Paul Perrotti’s decision. ( did you ever see a 

guy backtrack so much and try to blame everybody but himself for 

everything that goes wrong? )We really don’t want anything to do with the 

picture.”( what the hell does that mean?)”

The above paragraph of ranting hate illustrates just how Mr. DeAngelis is not interested in what is true, or what is accurate, but rather appears to be acting as the pit bull for Mr. St. John.   It basically is not worth even commenting on, but somehow we have an insatiable desire to offer Middlebury residents something they never read on Mr. DeAngelis’s website, and that is the truth.

So in a nutshell, we once again point out what is not true in Mr. DeAngelis’s unrelenting attacks on the MVFD.

1) The Fire Chief did NOT precipitate the “whole mess.” The MVFD does not consider this a mess at all.  They consider it a problem that has been resolved. The MVFD members voted to remove the picture, not Chief Perrotti. The decision was anything but arbitrary.  The picture was taken down for reasons listed under “Childish Actions” on this blog.

2) The Chief is not blaming anyone for anything. The action of the BOS was not the correct way to handle the matter, and their solution will not be seen by MVFD members as the correct one. There were reasons why the picture was taken down and to try to mitigate the situation by taking down everyone’s picture punishes all those who deserve to have their pictures up around Town.

In addition no other pictures of Ed St. John were removed from the wall.  Just the portrait.  Mr. St. John was Chief of the Department when he purchased and hung his own picture on the wall at Fire HQ.  It was not Town property and was not MVFD property. All the other pictures are MVFD property.  The members voted to take the picture down.  The BOS should have respected that vote, understood why it was done, and then moved on to the variety of challenges that are before them.

3) The comment about competent leadership of Chief Perrotti is insulting if not outright slander. To our knowledge Mr. DeAngelis is not a firefighter, has never been a firefighter, and has no firefighting training to speak of. Making comments about Chief Perrotti’s competence, when he has no expertise to measure such competence, illustrates that his opinion is based on personal feelings rather than on any measurable criteria. It is an emotional response devoid of all logic.

Now lets take a look at Chief Perrotti’s qualifications. The following is a list of certifications and positions held by the Chief.

Certifications:

1) Fire Fighter I 

2) Fire Fighter II 

3) Medical Response Technician.

4) Company Officer I

5) Fire Service Instructor I

6) CORE Rescue Technician 

7) Pumping Apparatus Driver/Operator

8) Aerial Apparatus Driver/Operator

9) Elevator Rescue Technician

10) Fire Marshall Trained

11) Safety Officer

12) Public Information Officer

13) HazMat Operations

14) NIMs Trained in Levels 200, 400, and 700

Positions Held:

1) President of the Waterbury Area Fire Chiefs Association.

2) Member of Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association.

3) Adjutant Instructor Wolcott Fire School.

4) Holds a seat on the Governor’s Educational Committee that oversees the 9 Connecticut Fire Schools.

5) Homeland Security Trained Emergency Manager.

6) Longest running Fire Chief in Middlebury

Organized and cataloged all information with the MVFD office secretary in order for the Town to qualify for a Homeland Security Radio Grant worth almost $300,000.00. 

What else does Chief Perrotti do?

He serves as the MVFD Training Officer, and trains all new MVFD Apprentices in Fire Fighter I and Firefighter II and does not charge a penny for his services.  This saves the Taxpayers thousands of dollars, by being able to train new firefighters in-house.

I would say that Middlebury may be unique, in that it has such a highly trained, and competent Fire Chief.

On a personal note, as a firefighter who has been on the attack line of some of the worse fires Middlebury has seen in the last twenty years, I can say that I thank God Paul Perrotti is the man outside directing the operation.  It is his competence that gives our firefighters the courage and confidence to do what they do, when it is absolutely necessary to do it at that moment, and there is no one else to mitigate the emergency than those who step forward to volunteer. 

The Fire Service has a quasi-military structure. Our firefighters can and will react to bring about a favorable outcome to most of the challenges they face, because of the training that is instilled in them by this Department and its Chief. The MVFD is one of the best trained Fire Departments anywhere, and the credit goes to Chief Perrotti.