Dozens packed the fire department garage this week as friends, family and colleagues gathered to celebrate the promotion or hiring of 13 first responders in one of the fire department’s largest new appointment services.
The event Thursday, complete with bagpipe corps, slices of cake and a crisp, open-air atmosphere, marked one of only a handful of in-person promotion ceremonies in the past several years and the highest turnout gathering since the onset of the pandemic. The department promoted Ken Black, Michael Donlan, John Ferrulo, David Gade, John Horobin and William Meade to the rank of lieutenant, Michael Shaw to the rank of deputy chief, Aaron Desjardins to battalion chief, and added Algirdas Zabulis as a paramedic.