PROVIDENCE — The city emergency management director who was fired Thursday deflected the blame to the mayor, who he says did not give him direction the night of the storm. Leo D. Messier is also angry that the school superintendent got only a “slap on the wrist.”

Messier was too upset to speak to The Journal yesterday, but his wife, Diane, who spoke for him, said her husband was fired because of comments he made to The Journal about the children stuck on school buses last week, some for as long as eight hours. Messier’s voice could be heard in the background as his wife angrily defended him over the phone.

“I truly don’t believe after 30 years of public service … that he is the sole person who was responsible for this and [School Supt. Donnie] Evans gets a slap on the wrist and Colonel [Police Chief Dean] Esserman gets a ‘good job,’ ” Diane Messier said.

Leo Messier, 50, a former state police captain, was hired by Mayor David N. Cicilline four years ago to lead the Providence Emergency Management Agency and led the city through numerous training exercises, such as an antiterrorism drill in September that involved state and city agencies and area hospitals. Just last week, Diane Messier said, the mayor sent her husband a handwritten letter congratulating him for being assigned to the regional advisory council for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She read from the letter yesterday: “I am so grateful that you are part of my team. — David.”

There have been dozens of drills locally and statewide involving rescuers, hospitals, emergency management, transportation and various state agencies since the 2001 terrorist attacks and the Station nightclub fire in 2003, all pointing to the need for open lines of communication. Millions of dollars have been spent on technology and communications equipment.

However, every leader involved in responding to last week’s winter storm has said there was a major communications breakdown — not with the equipment, but with the people in charge failing to share information.

An investigation ordered by the mayor found that school officials weren’t communicating with each other, the bus company, or the police and fire departments, which were separately rescuing children.

Cicilline criticized Messier for not taking an active role in the storm, firing him Thursday from the job, which earned him $95,148 in base pay annually. “To my knowledge, Messier did not check in with any other public safety agencies,” Cicilline said. “There was no recommendation to open the [emergency operations center] or respond to what had become an emergency.”

The Providence EMA also didn’t report to the state EMA about the growing gridlock inside and outside the city. “It’s not clear to me from the review done what Leo Messier did that day and where he was on that occasion,” the mayor said.

Diane Messier said her husband was in the office at 8 a.m. She couldn’t answer whether he had called the heads of the other city departments, including the police, fire and schools, to check with them on their situation during the storm, and Messier refused to talk.

She said the mayor called her husband at 6:40 p.m. on his cell phone as Messier was attempting to drive to his Providence house. She said Cicilline asked Messier what was going on, and her husband replied that the roads were gridlocked — “the worst he’d seen in 25 years.” She said Cicilline responded with “OK,” but didn’t give him any orders.

But the mayor said that Messier’s remarks to The Journal the night of the storm were also the reason that he lost confidence in Messier’s ability.

At around 8:45 p.m., when Messier was speaking to a Journal reporter from his cell phone after what he said was a three-hour drive home, some children had been on buses for hours. When asked about the children, Messier told the reporter, “It is inconvenient, but if I’m a parent ... [the children] have a cell phone. You’ll get home eventually.”

The comment “demonstrates a dismissive and indifferent attitude,” Cicilline said, adding it was why he lost confidence in Messier.

Diane Messier accused the reporter of taking the comment out of context. “He certainly didn’t mean to hurt any parents,” she said. “He was trying to say they’re safe. They’re warm on the buses. They’re being monitored.”

Messier knew about one bus, but his wife said he didn’t know there were more. But he found out after Robert J. Warren, then-executive director of the state EMA, got a call at 9 p.m. from an angry grandfather about the stuck school buses. Warren said he called Messier and yelled at him about children being on the buses. Messier then checked with the School Department and learned there were dozens out there. Messier turned down the state EMA’s offer for National Guard and the Red Cross to rescue and feed the children. Mrs. Messier said he thought it would take the Guard too long, and the Providence police were already collecting the children.

“Now this man has no job,” Diane Messier said angrily. “We have four children and two houses. And it’s a few days before Christmas.”

amilkovi@projo.com