With the steady rhythm of a nice long run, Robert Duval of Wauregan finds peace.
“I just go out and it just allows me to, like, unravel a lot of things,” he said.
And in his four decades in the fire service, the chief of Atwood Hose Fire Company and president of the Connecticut Fire Chiefs Association has seen a lot of things.
As an investigator for the National Fire Protection Association, Duval has personally responded to some the worst tragedies in the nation. “We see stuff that we wouldn't wish on anybody,” he said. “Sometimes it's a one-off incident. And sometimes it's compounded over time, and you need to take care of your mental health, too.”
In 2003, Duval was called to the Station Nightclub fire in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a horrific fire that claimed 100 lives and injured hundreds more.