Fire Chief Bob Mignard. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz)

It took a little while, but Harvard Fire Chief Bob Mignard is right where he wants to be. He is somewhat reluctant to be interviewed, preferring to have the spotlight on his team and their accomplishments, rather than on himself. However, he does take the opportunity to boast that Harvard’s all-volunteer fire department is unique and exceptional in its ability to meet the needs of its citizens, and he likes to single out various members of the department, describing their special talents and areas of expertise and inviting them to join the conversation. He is quick to deflect attention and slow to take credit for how well the department operates. He says that his main goal here is “to not mess up a good thing.”

When asked how Harvard’s all-volunteer department—he’s the only exception—works so well, he says with a smile, “Well, this gives me some bragging rights. Harvard’s fire department is unique, and it is not a situation I created; it is a situation I inherited. We can typically get three or four firefighters rolling in about six minutes. During the day we will have 10 guys show up.” This is possible because the department is well trained and very well disciplined, he added.

Mignard comes to Harvard after 20 years in the Groton Fire Department. He arrived here in 2004 and took the reins from Chief Peter Warren, who retired after 40 years with the department. Although firefighting was an early passion, Mignard did not pursue it full time until fairly recently.

As a senior in high school in Seekonk, he was first bitten by the bug when a friend persuaded him to volunteer at the fire department. He was taken with the entire operation, but was especially enchanted with the mechanics of moving water. “I just thought that was the coolest thing ever,” he said. He helped out in the department, doing whatever they would let him do. Eventually he was given his own gear, a day he calls one of the proudest days of his life. “I was never put in harm’s way, despite my best efforts. I just wanted to hang out in the fire department; I thought it was a hell of a lot of fun.”

After high school, he joined the Air Force and worked in the field of electronics, a profession he continued to pursue in various capacities for the next 20 years after leaving the service. He finally settled in Groton and there joined the volunteer fire department, which was located a mere 100 yards down the road from his house. He continued to work full time in electronics, until one day in 2000 when he just decided he was sick of it and quit. He took the summer off, did a lot of mountain biking and tried to decide what his next move would be. What he decided he wanted to do was to go back to one of his earliest passions, being a firefighter full time. “You have to like what you are doing,” he says. To that end, he went back to college and obtained a degree in fire science, graduating just one week after his daughter graduated from the University of Colorado.

Now he is hard at work, doing a job he loves with 26 volunteer firefighters he both enjoys and respects. When not at the fire station, he enjoys mountain biking and woodworking, and is just now getting back into ham radio. His current project is working on building a cradle for his first grandchild, due in April. Helping him in this endeavor is another firefighter and expert woodworker, Kenny Harrod.

“I am lucky to be where I am now,” Chief Mignard says. “In high school, I thought that firefighting was the best job in the world. I still do.”

See related article on Harvard's volunteer fire department.