FL Chief's Loss Leads to Passion for Prevention

July 4 marks the 40-year anniversary of the house fire that killed Pete DiMaria's mother, brother, sister and grandfather.

DiMaria was just 11 years old when it happened at his house in Pompano Beach. The fire sparked overnight. He still doesn't know how it started. His grandfather tried rousing the family awake, but the smoke knocked them out. A passer-by — an off-duty police officer walking his dog — saw the flames and pulled DiMaria out.

So as DiMaria begins his tenure as the newly appointed chief of the Naples Fire-Rescue Department, he said it's rooted in his "deep passion" for fire safety.

"It's stuck with me all these years," he said about the house fire on July 4, 1976.

City Manager Bill Moss promoted DiMaria, who served as acting chief after Steve McInerny was fired in March, to his new full-time position.

DiMaria already has revamped the department's operations and community outreach programs. He received preliminary approval from the City Council for a $5 million rebuild of the fire station behind City Hall, a topic that was controversial during McInerny's tenure.

McInerny, hired from Ft. Lauderdale in 2009, was fired after the fire union said it lost confidence in him and claimed he had misled the public about the department's needs. The city paid an investigator $47,400 to look into the claims, but Moss fired McInerny before the investigation came to any conclusions.

Firefighters, several of whom spoke against McInerny in interviews for the investigation, have pointed to a boost in morale since DiMaria became acting chief.

"Pete exemplifies hiring from within," Mayor Bill Barnett said. "He has experience, has respect, knows the city inside and out, obviously. I'm super pleased."

DiMaria's salary is $126,000, he said.

Councilman Doug Finlay, who was critical of McInerny, said DiMaria is better "connected" to the city's residents.

"He knows what the community wants," Finlay said. "He's going to be more conservative with budget requests."

DiMaria served as battalion chief since 2005 and was previously a lieutenant and driver engineer. He joined the department in 1989 without any aspirations of one day being the chief, he said.

"I think I just wanted to work hard and do the best I could and be a good firefighter," he said.

And now, he said, "I'm just going to keep working hard and doing my best to improve the department."

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