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Light Rain Fernandez takes reins as Valley Stream fire chief
When he was a little kid, Joseph Fernandez chased fire trucks on his bicycle. Wearing his Texaco fire chief helmet with a red flashing light on top, Fernandez would pedal off to see what was going on.
Today, the 49-year-old is leading the Valley Stream Fire Department, having been installed as chief last Saturday night. His brother, Thomas, administered the oath of office. Fernandez became the department’s 93rd chief, succeeding Antonio Nuzzi, who held the post for two years.
Fernandez graduated from Central High School in 1979 and joined the Fire Department that year. He signed up with Engine Company No. 1 on Rockaway Parkway. After serving for four years in the Air Force, Fernandez came back to Valley Stream and began moving up the ranks of the Fire Department.
On his third attempt, he was elected second assistant chief, then first assistant before finally taking over the leadership of the department. He is a retired New York City police officer and narcotics detective, and now works security at Central High School.
The first major fire Fernandez remembers fighting is one that has never been forgotten in Valley Stream. Temple Gates of Zion burned on Thanksgiving morning of 1979, and two firefighters — Capt. John Tate and Capt. Michael Moran — were killed when the roof unexpectedly collapsed. Fernandez recalls seeing fellow firefighters running through the flames to help others.
“That was just six months after I got in,” he remembered. “I realized what a hero was. I saw firefighters do things I didn’t think were possible.”
The captain of his company, Fernandez said, was pulled from the rubble in critical condition, yet was still in good spirits as he was being taken to an ambulance. It has been 30 years and the temple has long since been rebuilt, but Fernandez said it still feels like yesterday. That was when he learned what brotherhood was all about.
He was reminded again in 1997, when he lost his son Richie to leukemia. His fellow firefighters supported him through a tough time. “What the Fire Department did for me and my family, you could never pay that back in a thousand years,” he said.
