Ed Quinto, the longest-serving member of Capital City Fire/Rescue after being hired straight out of high school 45 years ago, retired as one of the department’s three assistant chiefs on Wednesday.
His phone line at the fire station was answered by another officer who said Quinto was retired as of 10 a.m. — which the assistant chief said in a subsequent interview was an early celebratory end to a quiet final shift. Quinto said he’s been thinking “back and forth” about retiring for the past year.
“I felt that this is a good timing right now with everything going on in the department, with new people and so many things going on,” he said. “I feel that my body also is telling me that I need to take a break.”
Quinto said he doesn’t have any immediate next plans except “I’m taking a break from everything” by taking trips with his wife and spending time with his grandchildren.
Retired Capital City Fire/Rescue Assistant Chief Ed Quinto in 2020, about the time he was honored for serving 40 years at the department. (City and Borough of Juneau photo)
A statement published on CCFR’s Facebook page on Wednesday noted Quinto “has been involved in nearly every disaster in our community over the past half-century.” Quinto, when asked about the most memorable times on the job, said what sticks with him more than any single incident is how firefighting is a collective effort under a variety of challenging circumstances.
“Whether it’d be a big disaster, mudslide, tsunami, when we had the Thanksgiving storm one time when water was everywhere and the power lines were coming down,” he said. “We went to our cold turkey in the oven (after) because we were out all day because people were having house fires and we would comfort them. People losing a loved one. I was glad I was there at least to comfort people and serve the community.”
CCFR Chief Richard Etheridge said one the most memorable incidents involving Quinto occurred 30 years ago when a cruise ship gangplank broke from its supports, killing one passenger and injuring four others. The front page of the Juneau Empire the following day features a photo where then-lieutenant Quinto “braces the passengers from behind by wrapping his leg around the railing.”
“Ed Quinto climbed out there even though it was precarious he was just barely hanging on to help provide care to patients in that bad situation, and got them to the shore without anybody getting hurt,” he said. “That was an impressionable call when I was a young firefighter.”
The front page of the Juneau Empire on June 12, 1994, featuring a photo showing Ed Quinto helping rescue passengers from a cruise ship gangplank that broke. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire)
Etheridge said he was a child when he first met Quinto, later working in a camera shop owned by his wife before they became coworkers at the fire department. With Quinto’s retirement, Etheridge said it’s now essentially a tie between himself and two other firefighters as the department’s longest-serving employee at about 30 years each.
A retirement celebration “with friends family and fellow firefighters” is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Hagevig Regional Fire Training Center, according to a department announcement.
A replacement for Quinto has not yet been named, Etheridge said.
An Empire article commemorating Quinto’s 40-year anniversary with the department noted he’s worked with and helped make improvements to numerous specialized CCFR teams including dive, ropes, water, hazardous materials, medical and others.
There have been general changes in CCFR’s operations over the years, including fewer house fires and firefighters being able to respond to incidents more quickly due to improvements in equipment. Quinto said. Another change with the times is while he said “it was a lucky break getting hired” as an 18-year-old firefighter EMT right out of high school because so many people applied, these days recruiting enough emergency personnel is a challenge.
“Firefighting isn’t easy,” he said. “It’s not always the glamour of going out putting fires all the time. There’s a lot of downtime and also a lot of training that’s involved. So it’s not always for everybody. Sometimes people join the fire department and realize it’s not all the excitement they think it is. But to me it’s not just fighting fires, it’s helping the community, preventing fires, preventing people getting hurt. Being there when someone needs our help, helping Little kids learn about fire prevention and teaching people CPR…And when I was a kid I always wanted to help people, so I guess I felt like I found the perfect job for me.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
