DALTON, Mass. — Robert Czerwinski has agreed to serve as the interim fire chief for Dalton. 

 

The retired Pittsfield fire chief started his first day on the job Tuesday and has agreed to serve for 90 days until the district can fill the permanent position. 

 

"He's very knowledgeable and I think he's a very good leader. I think he'll do us a really solid job doing some reorganization and keeping us moving forward," Fire District Chair JamesDriscoll said.

 

Although the district does not think it will need to extend Czerwinski's contract, there is an option to do so at the end of the 90 days. 

 

"If we feel that we're not going to be able to make that timeline we will talk to him as soon as possible but it really depends on what we get in for applications … it might not take us long but we are going to do our due diligence on this. We're going to take whatever time that we need in order to find the right person," Driscoll said. 

 

When the district was scrambling to find an interim chief after losing two in a row, several people from within and outside the department recommended Czerwinski. 

 

Some volunteer firefighters who chose to leave the department have returned and attended a meeting Czerwinski held on Monday night to introduce himself. 

 

During the meeting, he said he sat down with both the career and on-call volunteer firefighters to discuss with them what they believe is not working, what needs to be changed, and what are some ways these issues can be fixed. 

 

"There was some issues and some animosity towards the previous administration" and challenges between the career firefighters and volunteers that can happen in any department, Czerwinski said. 

 

"We just want to make sure that that gets settled. We don't want there to be any people, you know, infighting within ourselves," he said. 

 

The department needs to focus on maintaining the 24-hour service to the community "which hopefully we've got planned," he said, while also keeping the career and volunteer firefighters happy. 

 

Czerwinski will be working with the district to set it on the path of building a level of service needed by the community. 

 

Each community has to determine what level of response that they want, he said. 

 

Dalton is lucky that it has the capability to respond to two simultaneous emergency medical service calls, Czerwinski said. 

 

A lot of people in the community don't understand that the Fire District is separate from the town, he said. "So we need to make sure that they understand that there's two organizations that we work in the town, but we're not a town department and we need to be able to tax and provide a level of service.

 

"And the expectation in this day and age is to have paramedic level service for most communities." 

 

Czerwinski served on the Pittsfield Fire Department for 32 years and was chief for nine. He retired from the department in 2019.

 

"I think this is something he has a passion for, and something he wants to do. And I think it fits what he wants to do, where he's not committed to one place for another 10 years," Driscoll said.

 

Czerwinski started his career in New York's Hudson Valley when he wanted to find a way to help his community and was encouraged by volunteer firefighters in his neighborhood.

 

He volunteered for 10 years before the medical supply company he was working for offered him a management position in Pittsfield in 1983.

 

Czerwinski wanted to stay involved in firefighting in some way so took the Civil Service exam and was hired as a firefighter in the Longmeadow Fire Department. The commute to Longmeadow from Pittsfield weighed on him until he got a call from the Pittsfield department regarding a paid position. 

 

He had the title of private then and the future chief opted to sign onto Pittsfield. It was a bigger department and it had more career opportunities. He was hired on May 17, 1987.

 

Although he retired, Czerwinski has still been very involved in the community by assisting other departments and serving on emergency committees. 

 

"I tell people it was, it was a quote that I read someplace and I loved, it is 'passion knows no retirement,'" he said. 

 

Czerwinski has been following his passion for 50 years now. 

 

"When you're a little boy or little girl, everybody says, 'I want to be a fireman. I want to be a fireman' and I finally got to live out that dream. it's been great," he said, 

 

"I recommend it for people if they really want to make a difference in the world that this is where you can do it . Is get into public safety whether it's the police, emergency, medical, fire department or combination thereof, you can make a difference in the world. You really can." 

 

In 2020, Czerwinski served as the interim fire chief for the town of Granby after it terminated its chief. 

 

From there, he stepped in for six months as interim director for the Southern Berkshire ambulance. He is also an active member of the Central Berkshire Emergency Planning Committee.