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Hello! Welcome to the Career is for Kids podcast for kids learn careers. This is Maxwell Valencia

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and this is Henry Morrison and today we have Terrence, a fire marshal. Hello Mr Dunn, thank

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you for spending your time with Beyond Career is for Kids. We hope we have a great interview.

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Now let's get started! It's really nice that we get them to review. Like, out of all the

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people, we never interviewed someone who would be fired. Yeah, like in the law, but just

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someone who works in like this category, if you know what I mean. I'm excited that you

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guys chose me and I'm happy you're here today on this dreary day. I got out in the wind

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waiting out there. Tell us what you currently do right now. So currently I am the fire marshal

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for the town of Westport. I have been coming up on two years. That's really cool. And here's

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a question. Yep, so tell us more about your career and how you got to this position. So

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I started my career with the fire department as a firefighter back in 2003 and you know

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I was on the line going to calls on the fire trucks and stuff and I enjoyed that but I

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was going to school at University of New Haven and I was going for a bachelor's of science

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for fire investigation and I always found that to be interesting and it kind of led

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me down this career path. So in 2009, how it works here in the fire department, you

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have to take a promotional test, which is a written test, an interview and I put my

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time in and I studied really hard and I came out number one. So back in September of 2009,

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I got promoted to a fire inspector, which does fire inspections out in the public and

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fire investigations and then I did that until 2022 and then I was luckily appointed fire

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marshal back in June of 2022 and here we are today. My boyfriend gave me a lesson that

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working hard can be the great outcome. It just pays off in the end. It does and education

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and putting your time in and studying and doing well does pay off. So living testament

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to that. And what part of your job do you enjoy the most and dislike the most? So the

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part I like the most is making the town of Westport a safer place for not only those

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who reside here but all those who work and visit on a daily basis. You know and we do

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that through fire inspections of all the buildings to make sure that they're safe and that people

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can't get out. They have to. And I guess the most interesting aspect of my job is fire

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investigations because it's a scientific process and you have to piece together fires and more

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specifically like arson fires. They're criminal. There's a criminal aspect to it. You know,

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it's a crime to start a fire and they're the most difficult to prove because we're actually

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destroying evidence. So when we go in we don't always have a lot to look at. We have to piece

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it all back together and use a scientific method to put it back together to come to

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a hypothesis and conclusion openly. The part I like least is sometimes dealing with the

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public is not always the most easiest thing. You know, when we go out and do a fire inspection

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sometimes we have to chase people down to fix things. You know, these things in the long

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run are very important. They're life safety issues and not everybody sees that aspect.

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They just see that we're kind of crossing the line.

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Yeah, they don't always think about themselves or other people in the case of an emergency

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and on the flat floor most people say, oh that will never happen. Stuff like that. I mean,

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you've got to be prepared. Yeah, and in our line of work we kind of look at the worst

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that can happen and we try to prevent it. That's a big right.

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Luckily, the town of Westport here, we've been pretty safe in town here so we are very

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diligent on fire prevention. Very safe town.

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So you try to really help the cities?

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Yeah, I mean even like Goll, Southwest, you know, New York cities, I mean they have pretty

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good like, you know, police fire departments, stuff like that because it's like a huge city

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but like definitely not as safe as here.

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No, New York City's had a real flux of fatal fires since January 1st. And there's a lot

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of different reasons why and a lot of them, you know, hopefully the codes will evolve

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and change and make it safer.

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And also if you go like a bit like, you know, like Jesus, he's in New York City,

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he's in a country that's almost like a colony.

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And there's a lot of people who are like, you know, they're too particular and they're

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all over the place.

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Yeah, and summers in Connecticut, yeah, very tragic. And even Connecticut here, since January

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1st, we've had somewhere in the area of 17, maybe 18, fire deaths.

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Wasn't there like a wildfire going around like the lime area?

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There might have been, you know, and right now we're in that time where there's a lot

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of dead, new growth has not taken place yet. So there's a lot of dead vegetation on the

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ground from the fall and stuff and that tends to be very dry.

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So the fire danger recently has been high. So people got to be very careful with camp

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fires and sparklers and such outside.

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Yeah, so like, was this a dream job you imagined yourself doing when you were a kid?

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It was. Back when I was a little boy, my grandmother lived across the street from the firehouse.

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So whenever I went there and she babysat me, I always dragged her across the street.

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And my favorite part was sitting in the fire truck and going down the pole.

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I actually used to, when I lived in Harlem, I actually used to live on the same street

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as like a firehouse. And they would always let me sit in the fire truck, so I was obsessed

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with that stuff.

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Yeah, I was too as a kid and I just knew my father was a police officer. He came up from

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the whole family of police officers and I deviated and went this route.

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And it's been very rewarding. It was my dream job and I'm doing what I love to do.

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You're doing your dream?

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It's almost like not even going to work. It's work.

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So we used to come to the schools and do fire prevention. We had a trailer, a mock-up trailer

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with a bedroom where we would create fake smoke and teach the kids to do fire prevention

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two ways out.

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I remember some little things, like not where you brought fake smoke in or anything. I don't

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remember that.

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I remember that.

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As long as I lived here.

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And who were you playing with?

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I had two main idols when I was growing up. They were both sports figures. Michael Jordan

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was big. He was one of my big idols. And Don Mattingly, the first baseman for the Yankees,

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I think are two of my main idols.

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So you were still by big pushy feet?

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Yeah, I was a big sports fan. I still am.

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You did the best in their category. I think that's what a lot of people want to do.

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Why did you pick this job? What made you do this? I know it was your dream job as a kid.

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Why was it?

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I think the biggest thing is helping others. The fire service, we're putting our life on

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the line to help others. I find that very rewarding. I think that my counterparts here

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at the fire station would say the same. It's helping people in time of need. There's something

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rewarding to us. It's an exciting career. I'm not stuck behind a desk.

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You're not on the fire truck anymore.

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It's a totally different aspect of the job. Being on the line, being a firefighter is physically

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demanding and challenging. No two calls are the same. There's a challenging side to it.

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You've got to be on your toes. I always found that very intriguing.

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That's what let me do.

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You never know. When the tones go off in the fire station, you don't know if it's going

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to be a medical call, a car accident, public service calls. You never know what call you're

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going to get. Or when. You could run 10 calls in a row back to back. Then you have a little

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downtime. In the station, there's plenty of busy work. We're very big on training. It's

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just like sports. You've got to train, otherwise become rusty on different skills. Even when

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I started 20 years ago, there's so many different aspects now and different tools. Between extra

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car executions and EMS calls, there's so many different aspects that you need to keep up

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on. You've got to train.

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I think the biggest highlight of my career was being appointed fire marshal. I never

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thought I would make it to this position. When I first got to the Westport Fire Department,

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I was a very small department. There were a lot of people here for a long time. It didn't

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seem to me as a young 21 year old that I'd have much room to advance or that I'd ever

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in my career make it this far. But things changed. The department changed and here I

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am. So definitely the biggest highlight was being appointed fire marshal.

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What are the biggest challenges that you think can be solved by our generation that you would

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want us to solve for you?

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One of the biggest challenges to the fire service right now is the cancer pandemic.

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We have lost several members here at fairly young ages from occupational cancer. We've

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made a lot of changes on the way we do things and our policies and procedures. So we're

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becoming more in tune with the risks that are presented to us. Not only the different

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things we're breathing in, our gear, our fire gear, and how things are absorbed to our skin,

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but hopefully someday someone can find a cure for cancer and help prolong our lives so that

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we can be there for our families.

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Yeah, cancer is like the second most common death in the US.

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Yeah, and as I say, to help the fire service, even just help our population in general.

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There's so many young people nowadays losing their lives too early to cancer.

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And you guys save lives.

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We do save lives and we lost some people, firefighters at a young age. They leave behind

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wives and children.

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Definitely something that needs to be looked at even more. It's just got to be so devastating

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to lose someone. One moment they're there and the other moment they aren't. It's just

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got to be horrible.

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Yeah, and you look at all our technology and everything that we have. Hopefully one day

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we can find a cure.

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We can take advantage of those technologies and put them together in a way that we can

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figure out a cure for cancer. Maybe something better.

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More better, yes.

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So to become a fire marshal, I mean like anywhere else, you need to start at the bottom

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so to speak. So you need to, my advice would be to go to school, get your degree, and then

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the next step would be you have to get emergency medical attention, otherwise known as EMT

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class, and then you have to take entry level tests to become a firefighter. When you do

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your time as a firefighter, you've got to prepare for a professional test and do that

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and hopefully promote yourself up the chain so to speak until you get to the fire marshal

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position. That's how it worked my career. It took me almost 20 years. But like I said,

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you've got to start at the bottom, work your way up, and work hard.

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Yeah, and look what happened. Fire marshal speaking with you today.

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So what is your main life advice for kids listening to the podcast?

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So I guess my main advice would be to do something or find something for your career that you

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enjoy. As I stated before, I really enjoy what I do. And 20 years has flown by. You

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blink and it's like 20 years and I'm not visible coming to work because I'm doing something

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I like. So my advice is find something in life that you enjoy doing for your career.

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And be an honest person and do your part to make the world a better place. That's what

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I like about it and that's what I strive to do every day.

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Wow. What a thing to do. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I'm sure you'll definitely

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do this.

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I appreciate that. I appreciate you guys reaching out and I really enjoy this.

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So to everyone listening, thanks for listening to the careers for kids podcast. Hope you

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enjoyed the episode. See you in the next one. Bye.