After a lengthy career in the fire service, Oak Bluffs Fire Chief Nelson Wirtz is retiring.
Wirtz has been chief for 3½ years in Oak Bluffs, but he is stepping away after nearly four decades in the fire and EMS service.
Before Oak Bluffs, he worked his way up through the ranks of the Chatham Fire Department, where he worked the majority of his career, 27 years.
Oak Bluffs was the first department he served as chief. He was sworn in for the job in May 2021. His last official day will be Dec. 19.
“It has been the absolute highlight of my career to be here,” Wirtz told The Times. “It has been incredibly challenging professionally, but I’m so grateful to have this experience, and I have been welcomed as a part of this community, making friends for life. I love this Island and this community, and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude.”
He says he feels confident in leaving the department in good hands.
Wirtz took over the Oak Bluffs department after a tumultuous few years. The former fire chief, John Rose, resigned from his post amid sexual harassment allegations and an FBI probe. In the interim, the town worked with a number of temporary chiefs — including Rose’s brother; a former fire chief in Tisbury; the town’s police chief; and a Bourne fire chief — before selecting Wirtz to fill the role permanently.
At the time of his hire, there was also some friction between the department’s ambulance services and volunteer firefighters. During the hiring process, Wirtz was asked about bringing the two agencies together.
“This could have been a nightmare, but it was the exact opposite. The community, and specifically the members of the fire department and EMS, embraced change and went along with some of my cockamamie ideas,” Wirtz said. “We did an inclusive, deep dive into what the department needed, and how we were going to get there.”
Wirtz said that among the changes was shifting the command structure, which included naming an EMS coordinator and fire captains who were on the same level of command. Wirtz said that helped firefighters know who they were reporting to.
He also helped implement how the department responded to calls. Instead of being assigned to a specific piece of apparatus, the department implemented a program that trained firefighters on all of the department’s engines. That allowed for a speedier and more efficient response, Wirtz said.
Oak Bluffs Fire Capt. Nelson Dickson, who was part of the department for Wirtz’s tenure, said he initially resisted some of the changes the chief proposed.
“He was brought in to clean things up and put the department back on track,” Capt. Dickson said. “He wanted to come in and change things, and we butted heads. But looking back, he was right.”
Dickson said that Wirtz was effective at bringing the department together, and while he’s disappointed to see the chief retire, he said that the department is headed in a positive direction, thanks to Wirtz’s guidance. “It’s bittersweet,” he said. “He did really well for us.”
The fire chief said that he isn’t ghosting the Island completely (he’ll be living full-time at his home on the Cape, after renting a home on the Island during his tenure), but wants to help the department. “I still want to be involved in helping emergency management on the Island coalesce a little better, to be more of a county approach rather than a town-by-town approach,” Wirtz said.
Wirtz has also pushed for a more full-time department in Oak Bluffs, rather than a call fire department — or volunteer-run department.
Overall, the outgoing fire chief said, he’s had a great career, even with the challenges that come with being a first responder. “I’ve been present for a lot of people’s joyful moments and present for people’s most terrible moments,” he said. “All of us in this industry, we carry all that with us. But it has been an absolutely amazing career still.”
He is grateful to his family and wife, Meridith Wirtz, for putting up with his absences.
