Meredith Lund retires as New Ipswich fire chief

When Meredith Lund moved to New Ipswich from Leominster, Mass., in 1992, she was a stay-at-home mother with an interest in first response.

She had limited experience from being involved in disaster relief for the Red Cross in Leominster, and joined the New Ipswich ambulance team as she began her lessons to obtain her EMT license. It was in one such class that she was introduced to the Fire Department through then-Lieutenant Tom Humphrey, who was the instructor in a car-extrication class.

Now, after 30 years with the department, including serving as the first female firefighter and fire chief in the history of New Ipswich, she has retired.

“I have had an amazing career in a field that other people only dream of,” she stated.

Lund said she had intended to serve for two years as chief, but at the time of her retirement, she had been in the position for more than seven. Her retirement was sparked by her finding a letter from the start of her career.

“I happened to find my letter of when I was accepted to the Fire Department, which was July 3 of 1993,” said Lund. “So I said, ‘Thirty years. That’s a good time for me to go.’”

In weighing her decision to become a firefighter, Lund said it was the reactions of those around her that swayed her toward the field.

“I talked to somebody and they were like, ‘Yeah, there’ll never be a female firefighter in New Ipswich, so you can just forget that,’” said Lund. “And I couldn’t let that dare go.”

Lund served as a volunteer firefighter for years, working her way up the ranks through the calls she was able to respond to. In her initial years with the department, she also used her master’s degree in choral and instrumental music as faculty at Mascenic High School.

“[I] was never going to leave there. I loved what I did [and I] had my own kids in my classes,” said Lund.

Even though Lund had no plans to leave Mascenic, she told then-Chief Rick Hewitt she had specific criteria under which she would depart. These terms were serendipitously met by a position at the New Hampshire Fire Academy.

“I said to him the only way I would ever leave Mascenic was if I could get an educational job at the state level in Fire Service,” said Lund. “The job that I ended up taking for the Fire Academy came across his desk, and when I read the job description I said, ‘That’s my job.’”

While at the New Hampshire Fire Academy, Lund also stepped into the role of deputy chief, and continued to gain certifications and attend classes to expand her knowledge in the field. Lund was comfortable with the level of leadership she had and intended on spending the remainder of her career as the line officer of the department.

Being a line officer allows an officer, usually a lieutenant or a captain, to lead while avoiding an administrative role. Lund said it also gave her the opportunity “to be able to go into burning buildings.”

As Lund began to test the prospect of becoming chief and the duties that came with the position, it became a more-feasible option than being a line officer.

“I kind of got involved in the management portion of it… managing a big, intricate scene, making decisions on equipment that needed to come in, making decisions on what are good tactics and strategies” she said. “And [I] realized that I really, really enjoyed that part of it. And as I got older, I kind of liked that more than just running into burning buildings.”

Lund ran for chief and was elected in 2016. She was the last elected chief and the first to ever be appointed. Lund headed the movement to change the process of selecting a fire chief, as before the switch to an appointed position, there were no experience requirements for a prospective fire chief.

“We were trying to increase the responsibilities and notoriety of the position and make it so that it was actually a professional position,” said Lund. “So that you had to have some qualifications in the job description.”

One of the pillars of Lund’s platform as chief was to make all members of the department feel like it was “their department.”

“Every one of them has a specialty,” she said. “Whether it’s maintenance of trucks, or understanding of how communications and radios work or… skills with training, every officer has some of those skill sets.”

Lund said that despite not being impeded by the male-dominated field in her own personal experience, it is a prevalent issue in the industry.

“There’s a very small group of people that are female in the fire service.” said Lund. “I’m not exactly sure why some of it is the difficulties of the job. You have to be able to work as hard as the guys, but you have to think differently in that you have to use different muscles in order to accomplish the same goals, things like that.”

In her tenure as a firefighter and as a chief, Lund was on the first team of New Hampshire wildland firefighters to cross the border into Canada. She will continue to work with the Alaska Incident Management Team, as well as her medical oversight role for New Hampshire wildfire relief. She is a chief at the New Hampshire Fire Academy, where she was the first woman to hold the position.

Even in retirement, Lund remains active in the first-responder community. She will continue to manage the medical logistics of wildland fires across the state. She will also remain a leader of the Alaska Incident Management Team, an interagency group that promotes excellence in the field and preparedness for civilians.

Lund has complete faith in the future of the department under new Fire Chief Gary Somero, and does not see her departure having any impact.

“So much as I’d like to say I’m going to be missed, I think it’s going to go off without a hiccup and everything’s going to go along very smoothly,” said Lund.