For 25 years, Lt. Michael Wright drove on West 25th Street in Hialeah to get to Fire Station No. 6.
On June 26, Hialeah renamed the street to honor his legacy as the city’s first African-American firefighter. Wright, who worked as an instructor in the fire academy at North Campus for 15 years, passed away in December, at the age of 56, after battling leukemia and bladder cancer.
Michael Wright Way extends from West 4th Avenue to West 8th Avenue.
“He was a trailblazer. He faced many challenges and he came through unscathed; he knew that somebody like him needed to blaze the trail for others,” said Karls Paul-Noel, the fire science program manager at Miami Dade College, who was also Wright’s direct supervisor.
Wright was hired by the city of Hialeah in 1986. He faced adversity from the outset. A February 2016 Miami Herald article describes how colleagues hurled racial slurs at him on a daily basis and shoved equipment at him. After five months of abuse, Wright considered quitting.
“There were times where he wanted to give up, and I told him that he couldn’t give up the battle, that he could be a leader—not a follower,” Wright’s mom, DeAlma Andrews said proudly.
His leadership qualities eventually paid off.
“The City of Hialeah had never walked at the Martin Luther King Parade, but Michael thought it was the right thing to do,” Andrews said. “He went to his superiors and was instrumental in getting the entire department into the parade for the first time in 2016.”
His passion for the fire department was fueled at a young age. As a kid, his mom bought him a toy firetruck but it was an experience with a real fire truck that left an impression.
“We lived in Liberty City and we had to call the firefighters and that was his first love for the fire department,” Andrews said. “He couldn’t stop staring at this giant fire truck.”
Wright also believed it was his mission to serve the community even when he wasn’t extinguishing fires.
He was known to take Sundays off to cook for the homeless and was also a mentor for the Boys & Girls Club of America, an organization that provides young people with various character building programs.
“One of the young men came up to Michael and asked if it were possible if he could become a fireman,” Andrews said. “Michael asked him [a] question, helped him and now that boy is actually a fireman in the same station.”
As an instructor at North Campus, Wright taught various classes including hazardous material courses that focus on handling highly flammable substances.
“Everyone said he had an infectious smile and he would light up talking to students,” said Hialeah Fire Station No. 5 fire captain and public information officer Cesar Espinosa. “He had a passion for teaching and being a mentor.”
When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 he was forced to stop teaching, but the community wanted to do something to honor the man with the infectious smile.
“His students planned a picnic for him and it was retirees and MDC fire academy students of all ages coming from all places to visit,” Andrews said. “I was so amazed at how many lives he touched that showed up to celebrate him, how loved he was.”
Wright’s friends and co-workers say his legacy will live forever.
“He embodied not only what a firefighter should be but what a person should be,” said Rick Mancinelli, Wright’s co-worker at MDC.
