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.