In his second day on the job, Buxton’s new fire chief, Bruce Mullen, shrugged off the high-profile personnel departures in recent months, which have included his predecessor and the town’s longtime police chief.
“The past is the past,” Mullen said. “I don’t really want to know what happened nor do I really care too much because that all happened before I got here.”
The 53-year-old Mullen was formerly the fire chief in Dayton. He is replacing Larry Straffin, the former Buxton fire chief.
“I think Buxton is an up and coming department, and I wanted to be a part of it,” said Mullen, who served as the fire chief at Goodwin Mills in Dayton for 22 years. “I have many years in fire service, and I thought it was a perfect fit.”
Mullen began his career as a volunteer firefighter in Dayton in 1972. In 1981 he became a full-time firefighter – the first person to do so for the department. By 1983, the fire department voted for him to become the fire chief, a position he held until 2002.
“Basically, I was a full-time firefighter with full-time fire chief responsibilities,” he said. “It was like that until I resigned in 2002.”
Mullen said he didn’t really retire; rather, he decided to change careers. He and his wife, Kathleen, moved to Cape Cod, Mass., that year to help her mother run the family’s inn. In 2007, the inn sold and the Mullens returned to Dayton. While away from Maine and out of the fire industry, Mullen said, he knew he eventually wanted to return to his passion – firefighting.
“As soon as I got back to Maine, I realized I missed it big time,” he said. “This (Buxton fire chief) job came up, I put in for it, went through the process and here I am just loving it.”
Despite a heart attack 13 years ago at the age of 40, Mullen believes he is healthy enough to return a profession that can at times be stressful.
“It happened,” he said. “I’ve taken care of myself, and I passed the medical exams that Buxton required me to take. I asked my cardiologist and showed him the job description for this job, and he told me there wasn’t a doubt I could do this job. If he had any reservations, I would’ve pulled my name immediately.”
Mullen will be in charge of 50 volunteer firefighters and two per diem officers. Although he said he isn’t aiming for a specific number of volunteers in the department, Mullen said he would like to attract more.
“This isn’t the days of 18 dairy farms in the town where people could leave at the drop of a hat to go to a scene,” he said. “I understand that, but I do know that the more we have the more coverage we can get.”
Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre, who has known Mullen for more than 20 years, said he believes Buxton made the right decision and hired the right person for the job.
“Bruce has been around for a long time,” Lefebvre said. “I know he’ll do a fine job. He’s an excellent fireman.”
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