Meet the city’s new junior and professional firefighters

The City of Long Beach welcomed a handful of new members to learn about and protect community members from fires.

The first seven members of the newly-back Long Beach Junior Fire Department were sworn in by Acting Fire Commissioner Scott Kemins Sunday, with parents and firefighters in the audience.

“We used to have a junior program many years ago, and I’m actually a product of that,” Kemins said. “I was a junior member until the 1980s.”

The program then dwindled down for a while and it became harder and harder to get people to volunteer. Kemins and the department was interested in starting the program back up, and did so for the first time this year. Two of the members are his daughters.

“We had a lot of interest” he said, “and we figured we’d start off slowly. We got our first seven applications, took in the first seven kids, just to get the program going and grow it from there.”

Kemins is hoping to get it up to about 25 kids. All of the advisors for the programs are members of the volunteer firefighters as well. They will be taking the kids to an upcoming Narcan training class.

Young firefighters between 14 and 17 will learn about the career and emergency medical services, and at 18, will be eligible to become a full member. It is an opportunity for the kids of Long Beach and surrounding communities to do community service, and at the same time have a fun and educational experience.

“School is their number one priority at no time should this program get in the way of school,” Kemins said. “I can’t speak enough about the program. I think it’s a great program for kids. It’s a great opportunity for the kids as well as our whole community. We’re hoping that a lot of them do stick with it and want to become a regular member but we’ve also had members that became doctors or lawyers.”

Also, two new career firefighters were sworn in last Wednesday. Acting City Manager and Police Commissioner Ron Walsh swore in both Neal Krysinski and William Kane. Both Kane and Krysinski are already certified EMT’s, born and raised in Long Beach.

Kane joins the department with almost five years of experience working as an FDNY EMT. He is an ocean certified lifeguard and also worked as a fire spotter for the U.S. Forest Service.

Krysinski comes over from the TSA as a transportation security specialist in explosives. He has a combined 17 years of service in the Air Force as both active duty and a reservist. He has been deployed to the Middle East many times as an Air Force Firefighter and as an explosive ordnance disposal technician.