Steven Bradbury
By Kathleen Downey
Newburyport Deputy Fire Chief, Steven Bradbury
Steven Bradbury has an innate connection to the community that he serves. He grew up on Lime Street, played sports on the Perkins Playground, fished from the waterfront with his chums, and “bicycled everywhere.” The neighborhoods he traversed as a young boy are the same neighborhoods—even if some bear little resemblance to those of his boyhood—that he now protects in his role as Newburyport’s deputy fire chief. Sports have also carried into Bradbury’s adult life. As the city’s youth football commissioner, Bradbury coaches new generations: building stamina, shaping attitudes of perseverance, and cultivating the enjoyment derived from physically excelling. Of the balance that he manages between his public servant role as firefighter and his active volunteer role as coach and mentor to young boys (besides football, Bradbury has coached baseball and basketball), Bradbury says simply, “I love what I do.”
By Bradbury’s account, he got into firefighting “late.” Bradbury was in his early 30s when he joined the Newburyport Fire Department in 1993, having worked the eight years prior as an insurance claims representative. But his enlistment in the force may have had less to do with Bradbury’s realization that an insurance career was not for him—and more to do with a natural affinity toward firefighting and public service: Bradbury’s father is a retired lieutenant of the Newburyport Fire Department. “Undoubtedly, my father has been the inspiration for my firefighting career,” Bradbury says.
As second-in-command, serving under Chief Steven Cutter, Bradbury is also the city’s fire inspector for both business and residential dwellings. “I make sure that buildings are up to code for fire protection and safety,” he explains. Bradbury says that regular, stringent inspections are a necessity, particularly in the city’s teeming restaurant community. (Before I leave, he shows me a photo gallery that takes up two walls of the fire station depicting the city’s more memorable fires over the decades—many of these restaurant fires.) “Fortunately, with today’s building and fire safety codes, we don’t see the many devastating fires as we once did,” he says. As we talk, a building contractor working at the Upper Crust restaurant comes in and asks Bradbury to sign off on a renovation permit. I infer from their conversation that he has sought Bradbury’s assistance in the past. Bradbury explains what information still needs to be provided, and that an inspection needs to be scheduled, before he can sign off. The contractor thanks Bradbury and leaves, but not before praising Bradbury as “a fine gentleman.”
Bradbury’s ease with people helps him with the sensitive situations he is sometimes called to handle. He describes some of the calls that firefighters respond to, and I realize it’s more than just fires that they quell. From hoarding situations (Bradbury describes entering a home where the resident apparently bought and packed the house with every item from K-Mart’s “Blue Light Special” over the years) to neighbor complaints (ranging from wood piles to dog piles), to various eccentricities and fetishes, Bradbury interacts and relates to the people in his community with professionalism and empathy.
And of course, there are the rescues. One of Bradbury’s more memorable rescues, he tells me, had nothing to do with fire. “We received a call that a young boy had fallen through the ice on the Frog Pond at the Bartlett Mall. Even though the water isn’t very deep in the pond, the boy was in grave danger for drowning,” Bradbury recalls of the frigid, wintry rescue. He pulled the child to safety.
His favorite “down time” at the firehouse is Saturday mornings, when, Bradbury says, many of the retired firefighters (including his dad) stop by to sip coffee and swap firefighter stories. But the most favorite time he spends outside the firehouse is at home. Bradbury savors the moments spent with his wife and their three sons, who are all athletes, like their dad. (His wife is a runner, stretching the fitness of this physically active family.)
Before I leave the firehouse, I ask Bradbury if he has a life’s philosophy. “I take one day at a time,” he answers.
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Kathleen Downey is a contributing writer to Newburyport-Today if you are a “Townie” and would like to be interviewed by Kathleen, please let us know!
