Fire Chief Frank Brown Named Central Coventry Chief

COVENTRY, RI — Hopkins Hill Fire Chief Frank Brown will add the Central Coventry District to his responsibilities. He is the new chief there, too. In a telephone interview with the Patch on Monday, Brown said he is looking forward to the new responsibilities. He will take over just the operations side at Central Coventry, and he won't have to deal with human resources in Central Coventry, he said. He does both sides at Hopkins Hill.

"It does seem like a daunting task," he acknowledged, when asked about being chief of two districts. But Central Coventry has a full-time fire department and three captains, who will share part of the workload.

"It's a good time" for Central Coventry, he said. After years of financial problems and turmoil, the district is solvent. They just bought a new truck. They're "moving the whole agenda forward," and it's all positive change.

"The biggest challenge is manpower," he said. Fighting fires has become very labor intensive. They need crews outside to mount a rescue if the firefighters get trapped or into trouble in a building. Ninety percent of the Central Coventry district has fire hydrants, he said. They bring in tankers, if there's no hydrant until the department can lay hoses over long distances, but it takes manpower to do the job. Even in remote rural areas, getting the water to the fire becomes a problem in manpower.

"We have 14 guys over 64 square miles," he said. They also have on call firefighters, but most of them have day jobs.

"The biggest thing is having available manpower," he said.

Image via Shutterstock