Retiring deputy chiefs celebrate care, mutual respect while bidding good-bye to Concord Fire

To Elisa Folsom, Mark Hebert is a “naughty little brother.”

Folsom and Hebert served together for two and half decades in the Concord Fire Department, both rising to the rank of deputy chief. They describe the department as a family, and their friendship is proof.

Hebert can recount with a grin how he and other Concord firefighters threw Folsom a bachelorette party years ago. He introduced her to her husband, Keith.

They joined the department just a year apart, around 26 years ago. Folsom retired in August; Hebert did his last shift this past week. They stepped down only because they gave years of dedicated service but because of health troubles: Both are battling cancer.

Hebert remembers when Folsom first complained of pain her in stomach. She was getting concerned.

“I was like, ‘Don’t worry,’” Hebert said. “‘What are the chances of two deputies side by side having cancer?’ Then she called me and said, ‘Well, there’s a first for everything.’”

Folsom’s first months of retirement have been marked by treatment, including chemotherapy, and recuperation. She’s also spending time with her grandchildren, going to gymnastics, football and wrestling. Herbert is planning to work on physical therapy and strength – cancer in his bones has compromised his legs. He hopes to spend more time biking and visit his daughter, who recently moved to Tampa.

They leave behind distinct legacies at the department.

Folsom grew up in the Londonderry firehouse with her dad. She came to Concord from the department in Hudson, starting out in dispatch. She’d also worked in an array of different industries and environments, from mortgage companies to professional kitchens.

She became Concord’s lead dispatcher and later earned the rank of Captain in communications. When current Chief John Chisholm rose to his current position, he needed an operations deputy chief which, among other things, could help handle the budget. He tapped Folsom for the position.

It’s not a standard track to department leadership.

“A lot of places, you wouldn’t get those kinds of opportunities,” Folsom said. “This city was very, very good to me.”

Folsom views not only Hebert but everyone in the department as her younger siblings.

“There’s a lot of people here I consider my family,” she said.

As Hebert described her, Folsom is a ‘momma bear’ who always had his back.

“If she got some information, we were gonna know it,” he said. “Everybody liked her, respected her.”

Folsom’s accomplished baking skills – and the frequency with which she put them on display – didn’t hurt, either, he said.

Hebert came into work as a firefighter-paramedic from the military. In his early years in Concord, Herbert said, he and his friends were dubbed the ‘frat boys.’

“We just had fun,” he said. “Working calls, working together, working hard.”

He knew he liked the Concord Fire Department from the minute he walked through the door, he said. The warmth of the people and the pride in their work was immediately apparent.

Hebert came to embody that culture, Chisholm said. Spending much of his career at Broadway, the city’s busiest station, Hebert maintained a tireless, love-of-the-game attitude. In leadership, he forged strong bonds with firefighters on the ground and proved to be a staunch advocate for their needs and well-being.

“He was the warmth of headquarters,” the chief said. “He’s just down to earth, one of the most caring people you know.”

To Folsom, Hebert came in as a “young, young man.”

“But he grew into a leader that I did not recognize,” she said. “He remembered why we did things when we did them.”

With Hebert stepping down, and with Folsom now some time out of chemo, they celebrated their retirement together this week at the city’s fire headquarters. A packed room laughed, clapped shoulders and enjoyed a slideshow of photos throughout the years.

“Working for a fire department, there’s nothing like it,” Folsom said. “It’s bigger than the job. It’s the community, it’s the people, it’s the families.”

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