GRANBY — Firefighting is in Evan Briant’s blood: his great-grandfather was a chief engineer for the Holyoke Fire Department, his grandfather fought fires also in Holyoke, his cousin was a fire chief in South Hadley District 1 and his other cousin was a firefighter in Hyannis.
He, too, decided to follow his family legacy at just 13 years old.
“We were at Cape Cod, and my mom and my aunt wanted to go out, and I didn’t really want to go out with them, so my cousin on Hyannis Fire said why don’t you just drop Evan off at the fire station?” Bryant said. “I did a ride along with them. I stayed the night there with them, and after that, I knew I wanted to be a firefighter.”
Despite the early start in his career, Briant never expected to become a fire chief until he was actually appointed to the job as head of the Granby Fire Department last month. On Wednesday, just four days after his official pinning ceremony, Briant shared his vision for the new department in an interview sprinkled between meetings and greetings from his new office at the Granby Public Safety Complex.
“In a small community, even when I was in Hadley, I was still able to be part of the the day-to-day operations,” he said. “So I could go on the fire truck. I could go on an ambulance. Here is the same thing. Once I get enough staff there that I can take a step back and be in the command role, but in the first 10 [or]15 minutes, if we do have an incident, I’m all hands on helping the crew.”
Briant served as deputy fire chief in Hadley for seven years before coming to Granby, but his career began in the town he grew up in. At 16-years-old, Briant volunteered as a junior firefighter in South Hadley District 2, then bounced around between Fire District 1 and Barnes National Air Force Base before finally landing in Hadley.
Leaving the Hadley Fire Department was a difficult choice, Briant said. While deputy chief, he finished his bachelor’s degree in fire administration and studied at Chief Officer School at the Massachusetts Fire Academy, just in case he wanted to take on more leadership one day. Yet Briant said he had no plans to leave Hadley, where he enjoyed the department and the people he worked with.
That changed last December after his mother’s death last December.
“My mom and I actually talked about it before she passed away,” Briant said. She said, ‘I really think that you’d be a perfect fit to be the fire chief in Granby if it comes back up. I really think that you should go for it.’ It did come back up, and that’s why I went for it.”
The Granby Fire Department has had seven chiefs over the last 12 years, and the high turnover has stirred discontent with town leadership among residents. The Finance Committee’s criticism the fire department’s fiscal year 2024 and 2025 budget overages were key moments in Town Meetings in 2024.
Briant is aware of these past issues, and has already begun efforts to stabilize the department ahead of a difficult budget season. He plans to apply for many grants and use per diem firefighters to offset any overtime costs from unexpected injuries, vacation time and leave.
“I talked to a lot of the fire chiefs, and they’re dealing with people being out or injured. They’re seeing their overtime budget go up a little bit too,” Briant said. “It’s not just one department.”
He also wants to add an additional firefighter, bringing the total up to eight full-time staff. This allows shifts to rotate between four groups of two people. When someone calls out, that spot would be filled with a per diem worker.
The members of the Granby Fire Department knew Briant before he stepped into the Granby Public Safety Complex. Briant graduated high school with Deputy Fire Chief Tyler Yvon. Mutual aid agreements between municipalities mean many Hampshire County firefighters often work with each other, and the police department has offered Briant a warm welcome.
“That’s why I like being in the same building with police, because everyone gets along, or, if we have bad call, we can come back and talk with one another to see if everyone’s OK. We all check on each other like a big family.”