TURNERS FALLS — As a career firefighter and military member, Turners Falls Fire Chief Todd Brunelle has always heard his colleagues who are getting ready to resign or retire say simply, “You’ll know when it’s time.”
Now, that time has come for Brunelle. Come April 2026, he will have dedicated 28 years of service to the Turners Falls Fire Department, and the 53-year-old is ready to start a new chapter in his career as an instructor at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy.
“It just feels right,” Brunelle said. “I wanted to go when things are good.”
Brunelle became a call firefighter in October 1997, having left active duty in the United States Navy in June 1996. He earned his emergency medical technician certification and served in that role at the department until March 2000 when he became a career firefighter. In 2012, he was promoted to captain, and moved up the ranks again to deputy chief in 2022. That July, he became chief, succeeding former Fire Chief Brian McCarthy.
Before Brunelle joined the Turners Falls Fire Department, he served in the United States military in several capacities, including as a firefighter for the Air Force Reserve for 10 years. He stayed with the military while serving the Fire Department until 2022, when he needed to focus on his role as fire chief.
“I had just under 30 years of military service. I’ve lived in California, Virginia, Maine, Hawaii, South Dakota and Washington State,” Brunelle said.
During his time in the military, Brunelle said he’s had the opportunity to work with other fire departments across the United States who have all faced similar issues, but have different resources, budgets and ways of approaching things — knowledge that he said has been helpful to bring back to Turners Falls.
Additionally, he said his military service taught him skills in leadership that have served him well as fire chief.
“You begin learning leadership fairly early on in the military, and it doesn’t always translate the same way, but the biggest benefit is being in that environment,” Brunelle said.
Brunelle explained working with people from across the United States and the world, who come from different backgrounds, helped him learn how to communicate and engage in public speaking, as well as teach others.
“They used to say ‘See One, Do One, Teach One’ kind of tongue-in-cheek, but they want you to become better at what you do. When you start to train somebody else, it helps sharpen your skills.”
Todd brunelle, turners falls fire chief
This ability to teach inspired him to also help train firefighters at the Massachusetts Firefighting Academy, where he was an instructor in 2017. In leaving the Turners Falls Fire Department, Brunelle said he’ll be heading to the academy to train firefighters there.
As Brunelle reflects on his time at the Turners Falls Fire Department, he said the biggest change he’s seen since the 1990s is call volume. When he was a call firefighter, the annual call volume was roughly 400 annually. Last year, the department was called out roughly 1,700 times, and Brunelle said he’s proud to have hired three firefighters to help navigate the increased call volume.
Brunelle also said he oversaw the purchase of new equipment, including an ambulance and a rescue boat, and he’s seen an increase in training opportunities that have heightened staff capabilities. He points to his staff training with the Western Massachusetts Technical Rescue Team and coming back to share their skills with other members, as well as staff training with other Franklin County departments on quelling wildfires.
As Brunelle’s position is accepting applicants, he said he wants to find a successor who is interested in continued training initiatives and increasing staffing through continued public outreach and social media.
“Regular, informal training is wonderful to hone skills and practice the knowledge that you have,” he said, “but while you’re learning new [skills], to go through the certification process, where your skills and your knowledge become validated, that not only is a check in the box, but it helps to build the individual’s confidence in those skills.”
While Brunelle has traveled the country and the world, seeing other fire departments and their operations, he said Turners Falls has a unique force of community-minded firefighters who always go beyond the call of duty, and he “feels good” to have led this department with such a high caliber of staff.
“They’re going to do everything that they can. I’ve never worried about that,” he said. “I know they’re going to go beyond in whatever is needed, whenever the situation calls for them, calls for their compassion, their patience. They deliver.”
