Name: Guy Newberry.
Position: Concord Fire Department battalion chief and recent New Hampshire Fire Officer of the Year award recipient.
What first got you interested in being a firefighter?
I have a lot of family that's involved. My father was involved, brothers, the whole thing.
How long have you been a firefighter?
Since 1973 or 1974, and in Concord since 1980.
How do you keep it light at the fire station?
We're cautious in that there's stuff that's not acceptable that might have been acceptable 20, 30 years ago. There are certainly some job stresses, so you still have to clown around, you've got to horseplay a little bit.
What is the strangest call ever responded to?
Anything to do with childbirth for whatever reason is always a big deal. For most firefighters it's always a huge deal. You'd rather go to 10 fires than do a childbirth. We do still do cats in the trees at times, and those can be kind of a funny call, because sometimes those cats just don't want to come down. There have been some very funny outcomes from trying to get cats down on ladders, and they don't always come down very well.
Have you ever been featured on a hunky fireman calendar?
No, I think I'm too skinny.
How fast can you descend a fire pole, and how fast can you climb up one?
We don't have any fire poles in the city anymore. I know one of my few fire service injuries, it was a very short pole and I didn't slow down in time before I hit the bottom. It was an abrupt stop. And I don't know how long it would take to go up. You can do it, but it's very tricky.
Do you or have you ever owned a dalmation?
I think the last one the department had was in the 1970s. They had one at the Heights station, but they had to get rid of him because he did bite people. And we don't have any now.
Guilty pleasure?
I would have to say spending the day babysitting my 3-year-old grandson. That's probably what makes my day the best.
