Meet Your Firefighter: Dan Doroski, Jamesport
Firefighter Dan Doroski is one of Jamesport Fire Department’s newest members. And this is something he’s always wanted to do, he says.
A student at Suffolk County Community College who is also getting his EMT certification, Mr. Doroski took time to chat with The Suffolk Times about his training, his experiences in the department and about the time a Jamesport rescue team came to his house decades ago to save him.
Q: When you were young, the Jamesport Fire Department helped care for you during an emergency. Do you remember that day?
A: Personally, I don’t. I was less than a year old, but my parents have told me the story and one of the guys [in the department] actually remembers coming to my house. I think I was 6 months old and I had a seizure from a fever and that why they were out here. It was pretty amazing.
Q: Did that inspire you to join the department?
A: Yeah… I was about halfway through my senior year. I just wanted to join because … I liked the whole brotherhood aspect of it and I wanted to help. It’s something I wanted to do when I get out of school. I also want to join the city fire department.
It’s like a big family. It’s good. Everybody has your back. Everybody jokes around, but its serious when it’s time.
Q: What’s the training like for a new firefighter?
A: It took me about six months to go through. We have to do a bunch of sit down classes and then we go into these hands-on training [sessions] where you do hose handling or simulate a firefighter down and car fires and flashovers and all that. And then you have your test … It’s not easy training, but it’s definitely well worth it.
Q: You’ve been out on calls since you joined the department. Do you remember the first time you volunteered?
A: My first call was a car accident on the Main Road. It was a guy with a truck and he took out a telephone pole. I remember just seeing that… you never forget your first call. Like my EMT teacher says, you always forget your first of everything: your first death, your first car accident, your first fire.
Q: What do you say to friends who ask you about what it takes to be a firefighter?
A: It’s well worth it. Me and one of my other friends, we got a lot of our new friends to join their fire departments. I’m always being asked how it is. [I say] it’s worth joining. It’s worth the experience.
