2/25/2004
Media Contact:
Captain Gregg Harris
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SHIFT COMMANDER JOHN GREGORY RETIRES
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Feb. 25, 2004) – An Indianapolis Fire Department icon retired today on his 70th birthday after more than 48 years on the job.
Battalion Chief John Gregory, after spending two weeks at the city's fire academy, was appointed Dec. 1, 1955 and assigned as a probationary firefighter on Engine 3 in Fountain Square.
Ten months later Gregory was granted an indefinite leave of absence to serve in the United States Army. Gregory returned to the job two years later and was assigned to Engine 29. A year later he was reassigned to Engine 3 and November of 1962 he was assigned to Engine 1.
In July of 1966 Gregory was promoted to lieutenant and assigned as the aide to District 4 Chief. He also served as a lieutenant on Engine 11 and Engine 8 before being promoted to Captain in November of 1969 and assigned to Engine 19.
Capt. Gregory was assigned to Ladder 14 in July of 1970 and Engine 13 a month later. He was promoted to District (Battalion) Chief Nov. 14, 1973 and assigned to District 2 on the B shift.
On Jan. 8, 1976 Gregory was appointed Division Chief on the C Shift. He served in that capacity more than 18 years. In September of 1992, Gregory served as Acting Chief of Fire for three days.
In July of 1994 Chief Gregory was reassigned to Chief of Field Training Tactics and in December of 1995 be was transferred to the position of Quartermaster.
When Shift Commander Karl Huebner retired Jan. 16, Chief Gregory was assigned Acting Shift Commander. Chiefs Huebner and Gregory came on the fire department at the same time.
Gregory practically grew up in the fire service. His father, Charles Gregory, is depicted in a historic fire department photo in the seat of a steamer driving a team of horses on West Washington Street.
Charles Gregory on a steamer driving a team past Taggart's bakery.
Charles Gregory retired from the Indianapolis Fire department as assistant chief after 46 years of service at the age of 70 in 1953, about two years before his son, John, was appointed.
Chief John Gregory worked a number of notable fires and incidents in Indianapolis during his 48 years including the Fairgrounds Coliseum explosion where more than 60 people died as an ice show concluded Halloween night in 1963.
"I was at the Claypool Hotel in downtown Indianapolis back in the 60s and helped rescue and evacuate about 150 people including an out of town baseball team who had played the Indianapolis Indians earlier in the day," Gregory said. "It was the first time we used fresh air mask. We had been using the old filter masks. The fire was on the fourth floor. We got a lot of people out, including a group of Shriners in town for a convention, by pulling up a 50 foot ladder to a two story level behind the building and raising it up to upper story windows."
"I was first in on Engine 13 at the Grant fire in 1973. We had just laid a line to a hydrant seconds before it was buried by the collapsing front wall. I was at the old Washington Hotel when it burned a couple of times."
Wall falls out on line just laid by Engine 13.
"I was just going off shift when an alarm was struck for the Hilton Hotel at Meridian and Ohio," Gregory said. "It was cold outside and I had just gone out to warm up my truck. When the alarm came in a bunch of us grabbed our gear and went to the fire in the light wagon. We got up to the top floor and someone knocked a hole in the wall to trip the panic bar. When the door opened, it was like we were in the middle of hell."
Smoke rises from Hilton Hotel
Gregory said the initial explosion blew thick glass for a couple of blocks around. Investigators later reported a flammable liquid was used to start the fire in the Hotel's top floor Bamboo Room.
Chief Gregory said he was in District 2's buggy, then located at Station 21 in Brightwood, when a number of structures burned on College and Park avenues in the 70s.
During his career Gregory was injured at several fires including a house fire at Orange at Olive. Showing scars on his left arm and right leg, Gregory said "We arrived about 2 a.m. and I used a water extinguisher to knock down a fire in a trashcan. I didn't know there was a tub of gasoline next to the can. It exploded. The explosion burned my lightweight coat off of me."
Chief Gregory is the second Indianapolis firefighter to retire under the Deferred Retirement Option Plan enacted by the Indiana General Assembly in 2002. Started in January 2003, the plan permits firefighters to build annuity on their pension base once they sign up.
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