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Crime & Safety

Profiles in Volunteerism: Scott Krycia

Scott Krycia of Bethlehem is a volunteer firefighter for Se-Wy-Co Fire Company in Lower Saucon Township.

Name: Scott Krycia

Age: 40

Lives in: Bethlehem

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Family: Wife

Job: Firefighter

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Fire company: / ()

Training so far: Firefighter 1, Firefighter 2, Vehicle Rescue, EMT, CPR, First Aid, Hazmat

What's being a firefighter like?

“It’s fun. It’s rewarding. It’s a tight-knit community and the cool thing about it is, besides going to fire calls and hanging out at the station doing projects with these guys, you can count on any one of these guys if you have something outside of the company that you may need help with. Such as, I’ll have a hole in my roof, and one of them will come over and fix it, because that’s what they do. In that aspect, it’s really rewarding. Plus, going to fire calls and helping people who need it is really rewarding too.”

How do your loved ones feel about you putting your life in danger?

“My wife is fine with it. I was a fireman before we were married so it kind of came along with it.”

Tell us a story you'll never forget about your firefighting experience.

“There was a house here on Old Philadelphia Pike. I was at Leithsville and I was really young in the company--I might have been a captain, maybe four or five years in. We pull up and we get an assignment to go into the basement because there was somebody trapped down there and that’s where the fire was. I can just remember walking down the side of the house and the fire is shooting six feet up out of the windows. So we went into the basement and did a right-handed search around. We went into a laundry room and a closet that led to a storage room when it started to get really hot. The smoke was coming down so we decided to turn around and get out of there because it was really starting to get out of control. We started to go out but the hose line we had, something happened and all of the water ran out of it. It got shut off or damaged. The crew that was working the fire backed out so the fire rolled around and was right by the door. We couldn’t get through. I took my air pack off and threw it out the window and almost hit someone. I reached back into the small basement window and pulled Billy out. That was probably the most dangerous situation I was ever in.”

What would you tell people interested in joining your fire company?

“You get a lot out of the fire company but you gain such an incredible amount of skills from teamwork to just sizing up situations, working together in a group. You learn such an amount of skill that can actually help you go forward in your life. I don’t think a lot of people realize that. That’s the biggest thing."

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