SI Firefighter of Year Brian Lechmanski, always prepared

If you’re a Shelter Island firefighter or have a family member or friend who is a department member, you might have Lieutenant Brian Lechmanski to thank for helping keep them safe.

Mr. Lechmanski, 32, is the Firefighter of the Year, selected by the department’s three chiefs for the outstanding work he has performed on calls, in helping to train new firefighters and for the many hours of training he has taken to enure he’s up on the latest techniques that are vital to saving both occupants of burning buildings and his colleagues — the ones who race into a fire when everyone else is scurrying to get out.

The honor goes to a firefighter who “shows themselves to be above and beyond” what’s expected, Chief John D’Amato said. “He’s done everything he could” to deserve the honor.

“He put in an extraordinary effort,” First Assistant Chief Will Anderson said about Lieutenant Lechmanski.

“He was the most valuable player on our team,” Second Assistant Chief Greg Sulahian said.

The lieutenant not only responded to every fire call in 2012, but has taken several relatively new department members under his wing, starting their training on the correct use of gear and air packs even before they entered the formal training in Yaphank required of all local firefighters. Beyond that required 300 hours of training that Lieutenant Lechmanski took himself in 2007 when he joined the department, he has put in 540 hours of training in the past year.

Why does he do it?

“I want to make sure I know everything I can” to be prepared to lead other firefighters into battle against the flames, he said.

He was the officer on the line with a couple of others who went up the stairs to combat the fire that struck Belle Crest Inn last February.

“That was my first real working structure,” he said, noting he had previously responded to fires in empty buildings or grass fires, but never a situation where people were living in the building.

“That was a miraculous save,” he said about the fact that the building is still able to be rehabilitated. “It was just like a wow to me” to realize what could have happened if he and his colleagues had lacked sufficient training to handle the situation.

He is the third generation of Lechmanskis to serve the department. His dad, Larry Lechmanski is a fire district commissioner and his grandfather was a firefighter, he said.

“It just felt like it was the right thing to do to give back to the community,” he said about his decision to become a volunteer firefighter.