The Fall River Fire Department held a promotion and swearing-in ceremony on February 23, 2022. The event commenced with an invocation delivered by Father Mike Racine. Roger St. Martin was officially sworn in as the new Fire Chief, and he subsequently gave a speech expressing gratitude to Mayor Coogan, the City Council, Father Racine, his family (including his wife Beth and children Nicole and Joshua), and various mentors who supported his 35-year career in the fire service. He also reflected on the department's role in assisting citizens, citing a recent blizzard and an Irving Street fire as examples of collaboration and service. Following Chief St. Martin's swearing-in, several other firefighters received promotions. Ronald Sevigny was promoted to Deputy Fire Chief and assigned as the City Fire Monitor. Michael Koster was promoted to District Fire Chief, temporarily assigned to Car 2. Daniel Medeiros was promoted to Fire Captain, temporarily assigned to Engine 9, with a mention of his family's combined 91 years of service to the Fall River Fire Department. Christopher Medeiros was promoted to Fire Lieutenant, temporarily assigned to Engine 9. Each promoted individual was pinned by family members. Mayor Coogan administered the oath of office to all the newly appointed officers. In his closing remarks, Mayor Coogan expressed his confidence in Chief St. Martin and Deputy Sevigny, commended the fire department's dedication, and thanked all attendees for their presence at the ceremony.
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you uh to this promotion ceremony and swearing in as an important day for uh certainly the firefighters who are being promoted and sworn in certainly an important day for the city fall river uh i want to especially welcome city councilor linda pereira uh and city council andrew raposa we are very fortunate to have a city council that loves this city and uh supports uh firefighters and that's an important
0:25thing that's not the case everywhere so thank you for being here so i want to start by inviting father mike racine to the podium for the invocation good afternoon everyone let us pray good and gracious god as it is wonderful for us to be here this day to honor our department members who receive these honors of promotion first for our newly appointed fire chief chief roger st martin as he takes the helm to lead our
1:07department in the many responsibilities that lie ahead for ronald cevigna's new deputy chief for michael koster as district chief daniel medeiros is captain and christian christopher medeiros as lieutenant these new ranks that you earn your hard work and respect of your peers will require now more leadership and responsibility and guidance we give thanks for your service and we ask you blessings upon their new
1:41ranks that they are about to pursue may they continue to give graciously to their peers through example and work by the guidance of all the members of this department and most importantly the work of the holy spirit to guide them in their decision-making we ask you continued blessings upon our department our chief our firefighters in these difficult times that we continue to work with in our country and in our world
2:11but most importantly every day here in our city the work that they do each day to watch over them daily protect them and bring them safely to their families each shift amen
2:30thank you father can i have allison bouchard city clerk to the podium as well as the st martin family for the pinning of chief st morgan
2:51raise your right hand
3:00i state your name aye roger st martin do solemnly swear that i will faithfully and impartially perform that i will faithfully and impartially perform the duties of fire chief the duties of fire chief with respect courage and integrity in accordance with the constitution of the united states of the united states the laws of the commonwealth of massachusetts in the charter in ordinances of the city of fall river
3:31so help me god congratulations
3:49sticking up
4:01okay
4:22that this isn't working anyway thank you all uh mayor coogan city councilors father racine friends family welcome big bad thank you mayor coogan to the city council for the vote of confidence in me the citizens of fall river and everyone here in attendance is supporting others being promoted tonight i take this opportunity right now to thank my family okay my mom my dad my grandparents uncles aunts and
4:48siblings for creating a strong foundation that has only strengthened me throughout my life thank you thank you very much it's my mom right there i thank those throughout my fire department career will mentor and guide me chief such as shea dawson dory bernardo camara sylvia and lynch just to name a few okay thank you fire officers such as harrington walsh madeira furtado valencorp and fernandez okay and much others
5:23firefighters such as benavides dun duo rego paradise chippendale franco and all ems from ems professionals and a host of others whose friendship guidance and guidance have had a lasting profound impact not only on my career or my entire life these men held me on their shoulders while preparing me for this new role i learned early in life i was not a smart man did you write this but i was smart enough to surround
5:49myself around those more intelligent than i to help me learn and grow and for that i thank you all sincerely i was never one whose dream it was to be a firefighter following some time in the military i went back to construction and took advantage of the gi bill and went to bcc for criminal justice i initially met with ray la virtue the director of the criminal justice program there
6:10and at the time he discussed i discussed in my interest in becoming a police officer his response was take the firefighters test so i i i recall giving a quizzical look and he said he explained that that's civil service and that's how it works the police and fire tests are general knowledge tests and given opposite years this year was the firefighters test and i could use it to gauge my knowledge
6:36and test taking abilities i took the test and did well and was offered a job a few months later i just finished recruit training when the notice for the police exam came out i thought about taking the test as i looked at the people around me in the fire service their dedication selflessness caring concern for others i came to the realization i was helping those in need and work alongside great men and women a
6:57virtue that was instilled in me through my faith in family and i was getting paid to do it i was hooked that was 35 years ago now and i have no regrets i look forward to leading a great group of men and women without within our fire ems ema special services department alongside our brothers and sisters in the florida police department the local state local and state governments and other
7:17city departments are protecting and assisting the residents of fall river when we work together with a common goal as was illustrated in the recent blizzard and subsequent multiple on fire we can achieve great things though the tenants of the building lost all their possessions for that we were sorry truly sorry but the end result could have been much worse for the surrounding neighborhood
7:36if not for this collaboration and again i thank you all for that the 405 department has made great strides forward in the past 35 years and i plan to continue this momentum we understand that our customers are the citizens of fall river when they're having their worst day they call the florida fire department an ems division and trust us to fix and mitigate their issues and we do and we will continue to do so
8:02and one particularly bad fire upon arrival there was a fire on the upper two floors of a four-story building i think teddy was there with me and i entered the building to see how tenable the rear stairway was between the second and third floors there was heavy smoke and a young mother handed me a baby she had two other children in tow and we exited the building together this baby was one of his mother's most precious
8:23things in life and she handed him to me not because i was district chief saint lawrence but because of 405 because of the heroics of the past and present firefighters who exemplify the goals history traditions of the forward fire department i intend to keep those history traditions alive last but not least i take this opportunity to take my wife thank my wife beth glad she showed up
8:46who has been beside me and supported me throughout my career in both my military and fire service without her not standing in front of you today i know it's been a tough road to hoe but you supported me through it all i'd like to thank my children nicole and joshua who pinned me for their patience and understanding when dad missed holidays hockey games swim meets due to military mobilizations
9:06work shifts and fire recalls just recently my son graduated from umass amherst with his master's degree two years ago and i got called out to a fire during his his party for that i apologize again thank you for your assistance and support and i will do my best to make you all proud and continue forward progression of the foreign firefighting assisting and protecting the sins of forerunner
9:26thank you very much for being here tonight stay safe at this time i'd like to call up there coogan so we're going to uh sorry yeah it's okay so first we're going to um call up the members that are promoted it's going to be promoted so we're going to start out with bear with me for a minute please let the call district chief ronald sevigny front center along with him is going to be his
10:06daughter carly and his son eight district chief ronal sevigny is being promoted to deputy fire chief he will be assigned the city fire monitor my previous role congratulations
10:35my god
10:58this time i'm going to call captain michael costa front of center captain michael koster is going to be promoted to district fire chief he's going to be temporarily assigned to car 2.
11:08his daughter will be pinning him tonight and his mother
11:36electrical lieutenant daniel madeira front and center can we promote uh pinned by his father retired lieutenant tony medeiros senator darius promoted the fire captain temporarily assigned to engine nine lieutenant medeiros was also assigned to engine nine lieutenant dare's father was the fire chief for uh from 1942 to 1981 so his combined family services 91 years in the 405 congratulations
12:20last but certainly not east certainly not least sorry firefighter chris madeira's front center he's been promoted uh he'd be pinned by his uh his mother and his girlfriend krista christopher madeiras was one of my recruits um and i ran this training program sorry uh lieutenant madaris he was he was one of my uh new guys he was assigned to me when he first came out of the fire academy so
12:52firefighter chris padilla could be reported to fire lieutenant temporarily assigned to engine nine
13:09okay
13:23this time mayor coogan will swear in the new newly appointed officers in the former firefighter okay raise your right hand guys i state your name do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states of america and the commonwealth of massachusetts in the commonwealth of massachusetts that i will obey the laws and ordinances and ordinances of the city of fall river
14:02that i will learn obey and uphold the rules and regulations of the fall river fire department and that i will faithfully serve the city of fall river in the discharge of my duties as a state your rank to the best of my knowledge and ability and ability so help me god so help me god congratulations guys
14:56well how nice is this we got a whole new crew of administrators for the floor of a fire department we have a new chief who have a ton of confidence in i met with roger a number of times i like what he says i like the way he carries himself and i've known uh cevigne for a long time the other gentleman i'm sure i'll get to know but i know he's a stand-up guy and he does
15:16what's best for the city every time it's also a real pleasure that all of you joined us here today i was thinking about the crowd here and when we were walking around the building and there was covid and if you found someone on one of the floors they'd give you a five dollar bill because this place was empty for a long long time but i really do appreciate you coming out i really do appreciate the florida
15:37fire department uh the last major fire on irving street i got a chance to uh get there and see these guys first hand in action and i can assure you it was a sight to behold um as i tell everybody i think the last time i saw the chief at the fire was going over a chain link fence in the back of the building trying to run hoses they all pulled together
15:58and they did a great job saving that neighborhood and it really was something to see but i'm happy to swear these guys in they're going to do a good job for the city of fallover and i want to thank everybody for coming out today it's a real pleasure to host you thank you very much that concludes the ceremony