Franklin Square junior firefighters feel the heat

Heat from the sun and mock flames gave teens a real-life test as members of the Nassau County Junior Firefighters Association demonstrated their skills at Camp Fahrenheit 516 on July 28. The event, organized by the Nassau County Fire Service Academy at Old Bethpage, saw teens work up a sweat in the midst of their five-day boot camp.

The camp attracted teens from 23 villages and towns in Nassau County who have an interest in becoming firefighters or working as volunteers in their towns. County Executive Ed Mangano spoke to the participants before they suited up for action, saying that he valued their commitment to the program.

Teens climbed a fire truck ladder to enter a building, put out a mock fire, organized tools and supplies needed in burning buildings and learned how to carry out emergency procedures. Some said they envisioned doing all this it for real someday.

“That was a completely new experience,” Anthony Pallisco said, a junior firefighter from the Franklin Square & Munson Fire Department. “I was scared, I’ll admit it. But everyone is scared during their first time.”

Pallisco, 17, was one of the 45 junior firefighters that participated in the program. He started as a junior explorer in 2012 and followed the footsteps of his family members. He considered this program to be “the chance of a lifetime” for someone who aspires to become a member of the FDNY.

For Katerina Giannakopoulos, going through a sweltering maze in one of their “burning buildings” while carrying the firehose was a tough task.

“One of the challenges was holding that hose,” Giannakopoulos said. “It looks like it’s light but it’s actually pretty heavy.”

The 16-year-old Franklin Square native was able to overcome that with some of the skills she learned that were reinforced during the camp.

“I always knew that when it comes to dealing with fire you have to do a lot of teamwork and a lot of communication,” she said moments after completing the maze that was “smoked out”. “Without that, you can’t make it out.”

Giannakopoulos also sees this as a chance to build upon her skills as a junior firefighter.

“I would like to help save lives and make people happy,” she said. She has a few family ties to firefighting as well. Her uncle was an ex-chief of the Elmont Fire Department and she hopes to become a captain one day.

“It would nice to work in my home fire department, but to work here in Bethpage, I think it would be even better,” Giannakopoulos said.

Several of the participants were impressed with the level of expertise from the instructors of the program.

“Every advisor, they’re very knowledgeable, Chris Oliver said, a 16-year-old junior explorer.” I really enjoyed learning about the different SCBA packs, all the specifics of firefighting, and all the tools.”

Oliver heard great things about this week-long program and felt that this was something that could push his limits.

“I’ve heard this is the best junior firefighter program around and I’ve always wanted to better myself for the explorer program at my department,” he said. Although he does not plan to become a full-time firefighter, he still wants to use the skills that he learned at this program to become a volunteer firefighter.

“I see myself helping the community out with whatever they need, and just helping other people,” Oliver said. “That’s what I’m all about.”

Most of the teens in the program were fascinated by the learning curve for firefighters. Pallisco explained being surrounded by other junior firefighters from Nassau County made him and the others realize that everyone has a different starting point. He stated that the outcome should be the main focus.

“Everybody starts somewhere,” Pallisco said. “It’s okay to be afraid or to not understand something. You’ll learn it, they will get it drilled into you, and from there you’ll never forget it.”