Former NL battalion chief sworn in as Groton City deputy chief

Sargent ‘always someone you could count on’

New London — He had just finished a 24-hour shift on Tuesday morning when New London Fire Battalion Chief Edward “Ted” Sargent paused for a moment with the portable radio raised to his lips.

There was detectable quiver in his voice when he signed off with his call sign, “Battalion Two,” for the last time after more than 29 years in New London.

“We thank you for your service,” the voice on the radio responded.

Sargent retired from the New London Fire Department on Tuesday morning and by the evening was being sworn in as the new deputy fire chief at the City of Groton Fire Department.

“It was emotional,” Sargent said of his last day on the job in New London.

“I’m excited for this new position but I had a great career here in New London,” he said. “It’s a great group of firefighters and fire officers and I’ve had a lot of positive experiences there.”

His wife and four children had joined Sargent for a dinner with firefighters on Monday evening.

Sargent, 54, is one of the good guys — consistent, approachable and someone you could count on when things went a little sideways, his brothers at the fire department say.

“He was always someone you could count on,” fire Lt. Rocco Basilica said. “He went about his business and did his job.”

Others say Sargent had a special knack for lightening the mood during tense and high-stress situations at the department.

Sargent, who grew up and still lives in East Lyme, got his start in

the fire service in 1981 as a volunteer at the Flanders Fire Department. After four years of service in the Air Force, he landed a job as a firefighter in New London in 1989.

He earned a promotion to lieutenant in 2007. Fire Chief Henry Kydd promoted Sargent to battalion chief in 2014 and said Sargent scored first in the merit exam and is a “good officer and great guy,” to boot.

Kydd’s request for funding for a deputy chief’s position at the department has been stripped from his budget for years. That fact likely will lead to promotion of a battalion chief to his position when he retires later this year.

Kydd, with 40 years of service to the city, said he intends to call it a career and expects another battalion chief to retire in the very near future. The city’s personnel department is working out details of a promotional exam and the possibility of three open battalion chief positions.

Sargent traces his love of the fire service to the 1974 movie “The Towering Inferno,” which he saw as a child with his grandfather.

Over his years at the department, and hundreds of fires and emergency medical calls, Sargent said the successful saves stand out the most for him.

Sargent remembers when he was a new lieutenant, there was a fatal fire on Orchard Street in which he and another firefighter found an unconscious woman lying under a living room coffee table.

During a damaging windstorm last September, he was first to the scene of a fatal accident in which the driver of a livery service vehicle was crushed by a fallen tree. But the part that stands out for Sargent was the extrication and medical aid for the person trapped in the back seat.

Sargent has an associate degree in fire technology administration and served as the part-time deputy fire marshal in East Lyme for the past year and a half. He has since resigned from that position.

Sargent starts this week in Groton City, where he also will function as a deputy fire marshal, leaving a department of about 65 members to one with about 17.

There is an increase in responsibility but Sargent said that after 30 years of working rotating shifts, he expects to be home at a decent hour on most nights.

Sargent will be working under Groton City’s Robert Tompkins, the former fire deputy chief who is replacing retiring Chief Nick DeLia. Tompkins is the brother of New London Fire Battalion Chief Roger Tompkins.