"At this point, we're not allowing our junior firefighters to ride the apparatus," said Lt. Sean Joyce of the Green Ridge Fire Company Friday, noting the change in policy. "We're going to sit down as a company and decide what path to take."
Kangas died of head injuries after being hit by a car while answering a call on May 4, 2002. His Brookhaven comrades gave him a full hero's funeral and saw to it that he was buried in a Class A fireman's uniform.
The U.S. Department of Justice declined to add Kangas' name to the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Md., and to pay a $267,000 benefit provided by the Public Safety Officers Benefits Act to his mother. The decision outraged rescue workers who, with help from U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7 of Thornbury, won an appeal. The appeal hearing was held at the firehouse in January. On Tuesday, Kangas' mother, Julie Amber-Messick, learned the appeal was denied.
According to Joyce, Fire Chief Dave Evans Jr. phoned him Thursday after learning of the Justice Department's denial of the appeal. He called the ruling a "monumental decision."
"With between 60-80 fire departments in the county, all of them have a least one (firefighter) under the age of 18," Joyce said.
A junior firefighter is between the ages of 16 and 18, while a cadet is 14 to 16-years-old. Green Ridge has eight junior and cadet firefighters.
"I have eight teenagers who are heartbroken they are not allowed to go on the fire trucks," Joyce said.
Garden City Fire Company is also taking a closer look at their junior firefighter program.
"We're in the process of reviewing what our juniors do because of the Kangas ruling," said Garden City Fire Chief Joe Lombardo Friday. "Right now, juniors start at 16 and we had been thinking of lowering that to 15, but now we might not."
Lombardo, like Joyce, said his department follows the state guidelines, such as not allowing junior firefighters on the trucks until they complete the Essentials of Firefighting -- a beginning firefighter's course of about 88 hours, consisting of both classroom instruction and hands-on experience.
"It is a concern, honestly," Lombardo said. "We still can train them, but we just have to be cautious with them riding the apparatus."
Joyce stressed the importance of junior firefighter programs -- to both the young participants as well as the community.
"It teaches them paramilitary skills, responsibility and if they're with us ..they're not on the streets," he said.
"Our juniors and cadets have to know the equipment on all of the apparatus as I would," Joyce said, adding there are strict guidelines as to what a junior firefighter can and can not do.
"They are allowed to participate in drills and are given turnout gear and taught to wear it, but they are not permitted to wear breathing apparatus or be in a burning building," he said.
By the time a junior reaches the age of 18, they're trained and groomed to become a senior firefighter - not a small issue in a time when recruiting volunteer firefighters has become more difficult.
"Our program works," he added. "And at this point, we want to retain it and get more young people."
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