ROCKPORT — When one asks about Bruce Woodward, who he is and how he is described in the community, some of the same words and phrases come up whether it's friends, family or co-workers responding.

Well-respected. Patient. Thrifty. Steady. Voice of reason. Rock. Dependable. Calm. Frugal. Cool.

These are all words uttered by people interviewed for this story about Bruce Woodward, who has served as Rockport's fire chief for the past 41 years. His 42nd year on the job ends March 29, his official retirement date, and his friends and co-workers are throwing Bruce a day-long party March 30. It begins with a Rockport fireman's breakfast, and is followed by a big parade and party in the afternoon, which is open to the public. The breakfast at the fire station is for past and present Rockport firefighters to bid farewell to their chief.

Bruce, a Rockport native, was hired as the town's fire chief March 23, 1971. He was 24 and he had been helping fight fires since about the age of 15. He officially became a member of the Rockport Fire Department in 1965. Since 1971, Bruce has been the only full-time employee of the department.

"There was a 'sireen' on the building, because there was no such thing as pagers back then. If they blew that sireen more than once, it meant they needed help. Many times they put us kids together with back pumps on and we helped with grass and woods fires," said Bruce. "After I did that a few times, they asked if I wanted to come to some drills, so I kept coming to drills and learning more."

It's a simple start to a career that would ultimately become his life's passion. Bruce wouldn't call it a passion, just a way of living, of being a part of the community. Doing his job comes pretty naturally. And he is respected for doing his job well.

Bruce said his first working fire as chief was in May 1971. It was an escaped blueberry burn that turned into a woods fire on Mt. Pleasant. It required firefighters to walk up the hill with water-filled back pumps to battle the fire while two planes circled overhead and dumped water from above.

The challenges back then were that there were not yet portable radios available and the area of the mountain where the fire went over was very steep, even while climbing on hands and knees. The fire also went over the top of the mountain and they didn't know how far it had traveled until the planes went up and radioed back to Forestry.

The biggest fire he went to was the Samoset fire in 1972.

"It was a very big fire and we had very little water," said Woodward. "Back then we had 2-1/2-inch hose, compared to where today we work with 4-inch and 5-inch hoses."

For comparison, a 2-1/2-inch hose pumps 250 gallons per minute versus a 4-inch hose that pumps up to 1,000 gallons a minute.

Memorable fires for Bruce include the Dec. 23, 2008, fire at a commercial building under construction at Camden's Bay View Landing on the waterfront. The building is currently home to Graffam's Harborside Restaurant and Grand Harbor Inn. A propane heater left on to dry insulation ignited the blaze that leveled the building in a spectacular fire that had firefighters battling to keep the fire from spreading to adjacent and nearby buildings.

"The fire on Central Street was also a notable one. It was in the second floor apartment in what was the Pen Bay Oil offices building. It had extended to the third floor, and the guys stopped it before it got to the attic. It was also moving horizontally in the timbers in the ceiling between the second and third floors. It was a good save," said Bruce.

Then there was the fire on Route 90, in what many people referred to simply as the "turret." That fire burned spectacularly, but what was notable for Bruce was what did not burn that afternoon.

"I told them I was giving them foam and to lay it down on the adjacent mobile home, which we were able to save even though it was so close to the big fire in the building behind it," said Bruce.

Bruce said he is very proud of the firefighters in his department, many of whom have been working by his side for a long while. He said he's also enjoyed the family nature of the work, which has seen fathers and sons join the department at the same time, as well as three generations following in the footsteps of the one that joined before them.

"There is a great amount of satisfaction rolling up on an emergency situation and you work as a team to bring the scene under control," said Bruce. "There is mutual admiration between me and the guys."

Bruce said the positive cohesion in Rockport comes from the personalities, but that the most important part is the amount of training the firefighters do.

"Longevity and experience are great teachers. Every fire is different so you have to make judgments on very little information when you roll up to a situation. You have to coordinate where the hose stream goes in and where it's placed, and where and when to ventilate. These guys help make those decisions based on their experience," said Bruce. "They know what needs to be done and they will slide in to fill that slot without being asked or told."

Bruce credited Charlie Knight with being a great coordinator of teams. He said Charlie handles initial attack lines and which crews are going in first and who is on each team. Charlie is good at picking the crews for each team because he knows the people so well, said Bruce.

But at the end of the day, Bruce said it's all about getting water on the fire or it doesn't go out. And in many cases, that requires someone to go inside the building to get to the fire, among other things.

"You just can't plain squirt water at it. You have to search buildings. The first priority is life, make sure everybody is out," said Bruce. "You can have all the shiny equipment money can buy, but without properly trained people working as a team, you won't be successful."

Speaking of equipment, Bruce said pagers and mobile radios have made a huge improvement in the job they do and communicating about it, especially on the fire ground. But they have also allowed firefighters to be more mobile and still get to a fire when needed.

Smoke detectors and thermal imaging cameras have also done their part to help, the former with alerting to fires earlier and the latter with helping firefighters find fire hidden behind walls and up inside ceilings.

Statistics compiled from the Town of Rockport Annual Reports since Bruce Woodward became chief in 1971 show he responded to 99 percent of all calls -- there is one year of data missing, so we think it is safe to say these are pretty good numbers representing the calls he attended to as chief. (Data compiled by Justin Ford)

Number of firefighters that served under Chief Bruce Woodward since 1971: 134
Number of burning permits issued: 18,805
Number of chimney fires: 288
Number of electrical fires: 108
Number of false alarms: 1480
Mutual aid (assist other towns): 180
Car fires: 171
Building fires in Rockport: 180
Grass/forest fires: 205
Smoke investigations: 424
Gasoline/oil spills: 176
Public assistance calls: 249
Vehicle accidents: 456
Flooded cellars: 128
Bomb threats: 14
Boat fires: 7
Dump fires: 41
CO detector alarms (after they appeared in 1998): 28
Ice rescues: 1

"We were fortunate to be given a grant to have the first thermal imaging camera in Knox County, and for several years we took that to other towns in the county when they requested it," said Bruce.

When he leaves his post as fire chief, Bruce said he hopes that Rockport Fire Department continues providing the same quality service it has under his watch.

"My goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible," said Bruce. "I'll be keeping everything going here until the new person is on board, and then I hope to do some kayaking, gardening, and some daytrips in Maine."

Reading between the lines, that means Bruce doesn't want to be too far from the town, or the people, or the job, he has loved for more than four decades.

Will he still be carrying a pager?

"Why of course," said Bruce. And he said he'll be happy to trade his white chief's helmet for a black one and do his best to blend in with the group and help when and where they need him to. Because he said he'll miss the people too much if he doesn't stay connected.

Bruce's love of Rockport is echoed by his wife, Jennifer, who said he truly loves the community and its citizens, and his attention to so many little details during his career has proven that to be true, day in and day out.

Freeman Hawes was the fire chief for a year before Bruce, but Freeman was also hired many years before that to be the "day man." Since so many people worked out of town back in the 1950s, they hired Freeman to not only be around during the day for fire calls, to get things rolling until others could get there, but to also cut the lawns and do other work for the town. It's likely this is why Bruce can be seen hanging holiday wreaths and flags around the village, when he's not driving a fire engine or directing firefighters at a fire scene.

Bruce likes to keep busy. It's no secret — that and his frugalness are both traits the town has come to rely on year after year, whether it realizes it or not.

"He has loved to serve the town and its people as their fire chief. He lives and breathes the job, 24/7," said Jennifer. "He is very proud of his guys. They can do anything and can think for themselves. He has encouraged them, gives them the freedom to do the job and expects them to do it. He trusts and respects them all."

She said the chief is known for his calm and patient ways. She said he was just as calm and patient with their son, Andy – and her – as he has been over the years with his firefighters and everyone else he has had the opportunity to work with.

Inside the Rockport Fire Station, a bulletin board is covered with photos and news clippings of some of the fires and accidents that over the years have provided memorable and teachable moments. One such photo was taken by Ken Bailey in November 1982, and it shows a stockade fence with a house burning just behind it. Bruce Woodward remembers the photo not for what it shows, but for what he remembers seeing when he looked through the fence.

Bruce said he looked through and turned to firefighter Dave Farley, who was standing beside him. He turned to Farley and said, "Look through there, and tell me what you see."

"Dave looked back at me and said, 'I see a firefighter giving CPR to a kitten,'" said Bruce. "I said, good, that's what I thought I saw."

The firefighter giving CPR to the kitten was Granville Ames.

"Granville brought that kitten around. It ended up getting pneumonia but they were able to cure that with some antibiotics and a little girl was some happy that day," said Bruce.

"It's just his nature, being very calm and very patient. He never got upset, even as a father," said Jennifer. "I'm a Calamity Jane myself, so he's had to fix a lot of things I've broken over the years and he's always unruffled and patient."

Jennifer said she knows how important those traits are in the fire service. When she met Bruce, he was already the fire chief, but not quite full-time as he was still working for Bob Dean as a carpenter and builder. She would later join him in emergency services when she later became a member of Camden First Aid Association.

Their first date was on New Year's Eve 1971, and they were engaged five years later, on New Year's Eve, according to Bruce's mother's scrapbook of newspaper clippings. Jennifer was teaching at Friendship Village School when they met, and she went on to teach at Union Central School after their marriage. In the mid-1980s Jennifer worked for Camden First Aid, retiring around 2003 after seeing many of the same emergency scenes as Bruce during her tenure.

Bruce and Jennifer were married July 31, 1976, at the Vesper Hill Children's Chapel. A reception followed at the Lobster Pound in Lincolnville, with a wedding trip to Moosehead Lake.

Their son Andy was born in May 1979.

"Despite what everyone goes through on calls, he has always been positive about the job," said Jennifer. "In heavy rains, he's out helping people pump cellars and unclog drains. He would come home and get another call and say he would be right there to deal with it."

"I admire him that after all these years, he still loves it as much as he does," said Jennifer. "And I know he wants to stay involved."

Jennifer said the hardest calls for her husband are the fatal ones. Although very few have been related to fires, there have been a lot of fatalities related to accidents and crashes in Rockport.

She said Bruce's real "initiation" as the fire chief came with the big fire at the Samoset Resort, which caught fire and burned in October 1972.

"It was really big. He was a new chief; it was a multi-alarm fire so many towns were there. But he was a firefighter long before chief, so he had an ability to work with a lot of people. Strong mutual aid in the communities is in part because of Bruce," said Jennifer. "It is so important in an emergency situation to be calm. When people get excited, things start to spiral out of control. You make the best decisions when you remain calm. Bruce is very good at guiding people to making good decisions on their own."

Former Camden Fire Chief Bob Oxton said that Bruce was always a team player. He said that came in handy when it came to buying new equipment for the towns. He said they would talk about what was needed to better both fire departments, Camden and Rockport, and collaborate so their equipment was complementary and interchangeable.

A note from Edwards Marks, deputy director of the Maine Fire Science Institute:

Bruce Woodward was embraced by members of the state of Maine Fire Training & Education organization in the early 1980s and served as training instructor in the coastal area surrounding Rockport and the islands for the next 20 years. His reputation within the organization was legendary, always willing to accept a teaching assignment and never turning anyone away. Fire chiefs would contact MFT&E and request Bruce to teach a class. I would explain that Bruce had reservations for classes booked a year ahead on his calendar. I would inform the fire chief that there were other fire instructors that could be assigned but their response was always the same – oh, that’s OK put us on the waitlist we want Bruce.

His reputation as a training instructor was respected far and wide. In Knox County he was our go-to guy, teaching courses in the operation of fire pumps, leadership, strategy and tactics -- always with a focus on safety to ensure that all the firefighters would go home at end of emergency call. His knowledge, skills and abilities made him a mentor for others in the area, always willing to share, coach and train the firefighters or instructors using his methods to transfer information.

Now, it may sound like Bruce could walk on water but he did have one minor drawback. As with any institution – MFT&E, now known as Maine Fire Service Institute, required the fire instructors to file reports after completing the training. Most of my time commitment as a supervisor was chasing Bruce begging him to send in the documentation so the training program could be closed off the books. In many cases he would finally submit the reports without the required payroll or travel /expense forms that were required for him to be compensated for his work. I would call Bruce and explain that I couldn’t pay him if I didn’t have the forms. He would reply that it was OK he didn’t do the training for the money anyway. All of us would like to have about a thousand more like Bruce on the state payroll to help control the revenue and deficit problems.

I remember Steve Willis, the director of MFT&E, and I both traveled to Rockport from our office located on the campus of Southern Maine Community College in South Portland on a Saturday to join in the celebration of Bruce’s retirement. As I offer these remembrances I am thinking maybe Bruce has figured out a way to have a party every 10 years or so to celebrate his life with another retirement party. If so – put me on the waitlist.

"Mutual aid changes and education have both been big things in the fire service. When Bruce took over Knox County Mutual Aid Association, there was no money in any account to help pay for it and today there is, they have money to help firefighters get trained. He has overseen all of that. Let's face it, scholarships are a great thing to help somebody learn their job better and Bruce has done an outstanding job of overseeing that money as well as the training building over at the solid waste dump too," said Oxton.

Oxton said he's always enjoyed working with Bruce, and said he has "terrific, good common sense."

"We could put him in charge of anything, any time, and know that the job would be done and done right," said Oxton. "Rockport and Camden have worked better together as mutual aid than most others in the county, and it's only because of Bruce's ability to negotiate and work well with others."

When Bruce served as a state instructor, Oxton said one of things he preached about was to think about what you're doing before you do it.

"If you just yell out orders as the person in command, you will make mistakes. You need to sit back and size up the situation before sending people in and Bruce always preached it and did it," said Oxton.

Jeff Connon, a Camden firefighter for more than 40 years until just recently retiring, said he's learned a lot from his friend Bruce during their years working together, including too the importance of thinking before acting.

He said he first met Bruce at a barn fire in Union.

"I had just joined Camden Fire. At that fire, I grabbed a line off the back of the ladder truck to keep fire from going to the house. Things were looking OK, from what I saw. Then I felt this tap on my shoulder, and I turned and saw the Rockport Fire Chief. With a positive but forceful tone, he said 'Do you see any fire?' I said, 'Nope, not right now.' And then he told me shut the hose off. The Chief then said, 'I want you to remember one thing, Chummy. We're not hooked up to a hydrant in Camden, so save the water unless you see fire,'" said Connon.

"You see, I was shooting water everywhere, having a great time. That's how I met Bruce, and that's why to this day, he calls me Chummy," said Connon. "He's taught me stuff I would not learn in class. He has shared his expertise. He's been a rock. And I could always depend on him. If he didn't think you were doing something right, he would suggest you do different."

Connon said he couldn't ask for a better friend than Bruce Woodward, either on a fire scene or at the Old Mill Dinner on Route 3 in Searsmont, where they often go to eat and socialize with their wives.

He said he knows his friend is ready to retire, even though some might not want him to — ever.

"You'll never replace who he is and what he does for the town, some of it that people don't even know about yet," said Connon. "Whoever they choose to replace Bruce is going to have a tremendous challenge in front of them. We've always relied on Bruce in both towns. But he has thrived doing the job."

Firefigher John Wickenden has been with Rockport Fire Department for 15 years, and with Camden's for six. He said Bruce is known in this area, as well as around the state, as one of the best chiefs. He has trained firefighters all over the state and people respect not only the way he leads, but the way he teaches — both in and out of the classroom.

"The way he composes himself [at a scene], he has full control of the situation and we feel very comfortable with the decisions he makes," said Wickenden. "He is always calm and cool, soft spoken, and it's always like he's in total control even in the biggest fires."

Wickenden said all the towns have confidence in Bruce, because he maintains an even keel.

"You never know how good or bad a situation is by Bruce's mannerisms," said Wickenden.

If someone makes a mistake, Wickenden said Bruce is good about not making a big scene in front of others or making the person feel bad. But what he does do is make it a teachable moment.

"He'll pick your brain and make you come up with the solution that makes sense," said Wickenden. "He is not quick to jump out and say what you did wrong, but rather he will teach and coax you to figure it out yourself."

Wickenden, like so many others in the community, said he feels "fortunate' to have worked with Bruce.

"To compare him to others? He is incomparable," said Wickenden.

Former Rockport Town Manager Robert Peabody said he didn't want to accept Bruce's retirement letter when he handed it to him on Oct. 23, 2012. Peabody was town manager for eight years until last month, and he said the fact that the community in 2007 named the fire station after Bruce "speaks volumes of what they think of him."

He said he was impressed with his abilities and the level of professionalism he brought to the job. Peabody met with the town's volunteer firefighters when it was time to begin searching for Bruce's replacement, and he said the group "heaped praise" on Bruce as both a firefighter and leader.

"I strongly believe Rockport is better for having Bruce serve the community. He has been a fire chief that not only embraced our firefighters, but our town, and he always gave the extra time when it was needed," said Peabody. "He has been a key department head. We always try to do things collaboratively and he's always been one to step up and help out. He will be tough to replace."

Editorial Director Holly S. Edwards can be reached by email at hollyedwards@penbaypilot.com or by calling 207-706-6655.