Brian Dolan, 49 years old, Hamden Fire Marshal
“I’ve been with the Hamden fire department 16 years, 8 years in the firehouse and 8 years in the fire marshal office. I was watching a documentary, after 9/11, on firehouses and FDNY and it seemed like a rewarding career. I like the comradery and decided that after I got my master’s I would enroll in EMT school and pursue this career. Any call we go on, we’re responding to a crisis situation and you’re trying to bring the most positive outcome possible. Something bad’s happening and you try to make the situation better than what it was before the call started. There was one (a fire) in my neighborhood, an old friend’s house I had been in plenty of times and I was new. I was told to go to the roof. We cut holes in the roof to vent out the heat for the crews going inside with the hoses. When you’re in the moment we all have a healthy fear and respect of fire. You’re also focused on the task at hand so you don’t think about, well it’s always in the back of your mind, that stuff can go bad.”