Chapter 10
Interview with Superintendent Chief Charles Parent
New Orleans Fire Department
“The New Orleans Fire Department will respond to all emergencies in the City of New Orleans to protect and save life and property. Further, the department will strive to reduce the incidence of fire and the loss of life to civilians and fire personnel.”
NOFD Mission Statement
On Friday, April 2nd, I had the privilege to interview Superintendent Chief Charles Parent. We sat in his office at NOFD Headquarters on Decatur Street. The lights were dimmed, as Chief Parent was experiencing irritation in his eyes. A chemical burn he had received while fighting a fire years before caused periodic flair-ups.
On February 26th, 2003, Chief Parent was appointed the 10th Superintendent of the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD). He joined the NOFD in 1982 and was promoted to Captain in 1990, District Chief in 1995 and acting Deputy Chief August, 2002. Chief Parent holds an Associate Degree in Fire Technology from Delgado Community College (1986); he attended Xavier University with a focus on Marketing and Economics (1976-1979). Additionally, he served in the United States Coast Guard Reserve from 1977 to 1984.
Superintendent Chief Thomas Stone of the St. Bernard Fire Department said that shortly after Chief Parent’s promotion to Superintendent, during the press announcement, Chief Parent did not have the new rank insignias on his uniform. Chief Stone had an extra pair of the insignias and placed them in an envelope with a bottle of Tylenol and a note. The note welcomed Chief Parent to the community of Fire Chiefs, inviting him to call and chat if he needed advice. Chief Stone had been a Superintendent of a Fire Department for many years and was familiar with dealing with the politics associated with that responsibility. He dispatched one of his district Chiefs to deliver the package to the NOFD Headquarters on Decatur Street.
Some time later, Chief Stone received a call from Chief Parent thanking him for the gift. Chief Parent indicated that he had just been through a rigorous interview with the press which had gone very well and that he had been wearing the new rank insignias. He also noted that the bottle of Tylenol had come in handy after his first meeting in the Mayor’s office.
As Chief Parent and I chatted, the mounted television in the corner of the ceiling broadcast the coverage of the British Petroleum oil leak in the Gulf. I asked Chief Parent to do a short video interview to share some of his thoughts about his fire department response to Katrina and to share what he thought were the most important ideas to convey about their performance.
“Our firefighters were not only first responders, they were not only rescuers, but they were victims too. We tried to get them into places we considered safe during a storm…safe havens. We abandoned our firehouses and got our engines on higher ground. We tried to put them in buildings with at least 3 stories with a central core where they could get away from the windows and protect themselves…”
“After the storm, it was such a devastating event we lost communications with our guys. They essentially became their own little fire departments. I am so proud of what they did. They established management systems and everyone was put in places of last resort. They did what they are trained to do…and most of them had lost everything they owned.”
“I was sitting at a table with some of the guys, and one of the young guys said, “I’ve never been homeless before. I lost my house and lost my car--I lost everything.” There were about 5 of us at the table, and every one of us had a similar situation. We were now homeless, and we had never been homeless before. It was really devastating on these firefighters. The thing that amazed me was that they continued to do their duty.”
“They were separated from their families. They didn’t have any communications, cell phones or otherwise. They couldn’t talk to their families. Most of the firefighters didn’t know where their families were. They knew where they intended to send these people, but many never ended up where they intended to go. You know, they had families spread out all across the country.”
“Some of the stories that were never told were the way America took our families in. Not just first responders, but all the families from New Orleans. Church groups and individuals…they did everything they could to make our families feel at home. And in the Fire Service… especially in the Fire Service, little fire departments took our families in and found places for them to stay.”
“People don’t realize we had a recruit class that was in session when the hurricane struck. They were only half way finished so I didn’t keep them in town because they weren’t yet trained firefighters. We released them. When it was time for them to come back, we didn’t have a training school because ours had flooded. So the city of Shreveport’s Fire Chief actually took our recruits in and blended them with their recruits and 8 weeks later, they graduated as firefighters from the City of Shreveport. Then they came back to help us.”
“Our guys, even being displaced, being homeless, being without their families, they worked such long hours. They saw things that one might see in the military in a war situation. The difference between what they were doing and in a war situation is that they knew these people. They were recovering or securing bodies that they may have grown up with or families that they may have known in one shape or form. They were not going through a war torn country; they were going through their own neighborhoods, in boats past their own homes to get to people that they could rescue. They did this day in and day out.”
“When they finished rescuing people, we fought some of the biggest fires in the history of the city of New Orleans. It was a constant thing. Every day we had fires from gas leaks, chemical fires, possible arson, and people cooking or trying to stay warm at night. It was a constant battle in the city of New Orleans.”
“People don’t realize that 48% of the hazardous materials that pass into the city go through the Port of New Orleans. Our Special Ops teams were constantly mitigating the different hazardous materials situations. This went on for weeks and weeks, and months and months afterwards.”
“One good thing that happened is that FEMA brought in the Cruise Ships. We were able to keep our firefighters in one place. People often wonder why no firefighters deserted. We think of ourselves as a family, and we had what we consider to be our fire department family around us.” Everybody hits that wall at a different time, but when they hit that wall, they had somebody there that they could talk to; somebody that experienced the same thing that they had experienced; and somebody that bolster them and build up their stamina so they could stay.”
“I’ll tell you personally, most of the time, I was in the Incident Command at City Hall. But every opportunity I got, I went to our base at Woodlands or some of the other satellite bases like Headquarters. For me, just talkin’ to the people and seeing their enthusiasm, energy, and what they were doing, well, it built my energy up. It gave me hope to keep going.”
“Often people look at it as such a devastating catastrophe; and if you think you’re overwhelmed, you have a tendency to stop working.
Well, we were doing little things at a time and it built up and became bigger things. If anyone would have given up, we wouldn’t have saved the 16,000 to 19,000 people around the city in water rescues. You did what you could until you couldn’t go anymore, you got some rest, and you went out the next day in your boat and you saved more people. That is a testimony to firefighters in the city of New
