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 Riverhead News-Review 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.
