Page 58 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 52 Winter 2025

CHIEF by Steve Knight

JAMES

BUCK

If you’ve had an opportunity to stay in touch with he wanted to be join those who devote their career to
Town of Wallingford government this year, you know the fire service.
that we have a new Chief of the Department of Fire
& Emergency Services. His name is James L. Buck, In 1994, Jim left Southern to follow his dream and
and he comes to us with an extensive and impressive joined the Bridgeport FD as a firefighter, and was em-
career as both a rank-and-file firefighter and depart- ployed in that capacity until June of 2001 when he
ment executive. was promoted to Fire Lieutenant. He served in that
role for the next fourteen years, at which time in 2015
This article will introduce him by giving readers back- he became the department Safety Officer, responsible
ground on how this talented individual came to be for incident Firefighter safety as well as conducting
the head of this critical department, as well as some daily training drills.
thoughts he has on a couple of projects that the Fire
Department is currently engaged in. Hopefully, at the In March of 2019, he was elevated to Fire Captain,
end you will share the enthusiasm Mayor Cervoni has overseeing the dispatch center and resolving dispatch
that Jim Buck has joined the department. issues. In addition to those duties, he was the IT Proj-
ect Lead handling development of NextGen dispatch,
How it came to pass that Jim Buck chose to make a Fire Inspection software and Firehouse Software cus-
career as a firefighter can only be described as ser- tomization.
endipitous. Many of us remember the three tornados
that struck Connecticut on July 10, 1989. The third Having developed such a diverse set of skills in so
one was close by in Hamden, and ultimately did $120 many areas of the profession, in November of 2019,
million of damage. Incidentally, you may recall that it he was tapped to become the Deputy Fire Chief of
also did extensive damage to nearby Wharton Brook Bridgeport’s 300-person fire department. As sec-
State Park. ond-in-command, he now had a myriad of responsi-
bilities, among them supervision of the Suppression
As it approached Hamden, a deluge preceded it, and Division and nine Assistant Chiefs, preparation and
19-year-old Jim Buck, a student at Southern CT State administration of the $31 million annual operating
University majoring in Finance, happened to be pass- budget and five-year capital plan. He was also the
ing though Hamden on I-91. The rain became so heavy Deputy Chief of Operations, with all its responsibili-
that he thought better of continuing on the interstate ties, including Incident Command at the largest emer-
and exited the road. As he drove town streets, he gencies and the establishment of department operat-
came upon a fleet of emergency vehicles and, as fate ing procedures and policies.
would have it, decided to follow them to their desti-
nation to see if he could be of some kind of assistance. He held that post until July of 2022, when he then was
hired as Deputy Chief of the Stratford CT fire depart-
Turns out that their assignment was to pick up emer- ment. He managed this 101-person department as
gency equipment and supplies at a warehouse and second in command. His many duties included many
move them to Hamden High School where an Emer- of those he handled in Bridgeport, as well as much of
gency Center was being set up. He volunteered to the labor relations function, such as grievance reso-
help load and unload the equipment that day. That lution and collective bargaining negotiations. He held
experience was so positive that, henceforth, he knew that post until he accepted the Chief of Fire & Emer-

58 Wallingford Magazine - Winter 2025