MFD In the News: Firefighter Kyle Hastings and sister Kelly featured in the Daily Record’s “Dream Jobs”

As a young child in Mendham, Kyle Hastings was in awe of firefighters and proclaimed he would join their ranks when he grew up.

Whenever a fire alarm sounded, Kyle was immediately at the window, recalls his mother, Donna, owner of the Simply Country gift shop in Mendham. “Every toy had to have a siren on it.”

Kyle even talked his parents into visiting fire stations as far away as Kennebunkport, Maine, during summer vacations.

Kyle’s enthusiasm was contagious, prompting his kid sister, Kelly, to develop a similar childhood passion.

Unlike children who forget an early fondness for a profession, the Hastings siblings stayed true to their dreams.

Last year, those dreams became reality when Kyle, 26, and Kelly, 20, landed rookie jobs at two prestigious fire departments.

Kyle accepted a job as a fireman and paramedic in Landover Hills, Md., with the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department, covering a territory about 10 miles from downtown Washington.

Kelly was hired as an emergency medical technician by the New York City Fire Department, for whom she works in the East New York section of Brooklyn.

“I was shocked,” Kelly said, after being selected to enter the FDNY’s Emergency Medical Service Academy from a pool of thousands of applicants. “Working for the FDNY was my dream.”

Although being a firefighter was her initial childhood attraction, “once I realized it was kind of a manly job, I got into the health side of it,” Kelly said.

During training with the FDNY, Kelly surprised a few of her classmates when she expressed the desire to be placed in Brooklyn — with full knowledge she would likely end up in one of the borough’s toughest neighborhoods.

“The people in my academy said, ‘Are you serious? You’re not gonna last out there.’ ”

But Kelly quickly proved any detractors wrong, and has thrived since hitting the streets of East New York last summer in a trademark FDNY red and white ambulance.

In fact, she can’t imagine a job she would enjoy more.

“I love everything about it,” she said. “I like the action, and seeing new faces everyday. The area has so much violence. It’s not uncommon to get some pretty gruesome calls.”

Along with a heavy load of legitimate emergencies, Kelly said she also deals with the problem of economically strapped individuals who try to misuse the ambulance as a free taxi service to doctors’ offices and hospitals.

However, her protocol is to err on the side of caution before refusing anyone an ambulance ride.

Kelly said she believes she brings a fresh perspective to the job, even if she does occasionally get razzed for being a “Jersey girl.”

“Some EMTs are burned out. I like to treat everyone really well.”

About four hours south, Kyle has celebrated his one-year anniversary with Fire/EMS Station 830 in Prince George’s County — and traded his probationary status for designation as a full-fledged firefighter while continuing to also serve as a paramedic.

Working at a fire department ranked as one of the 10 busiest in the nation, Kyle said he loves the nonstop action, with upward of 25 calls per shift.

“It’s 100 percent adrenaline from the time a call comes that there’s a fire working,” Kyle said. “I don’t see any other career where you get that much satisfaction and the feeling of helping people.”

It’s a dangerous job, reinforced just last month when two Prince George’s County firefighters at a neighboring station were severely burned while battling a Riverdale, Md., house fire that was subsequently ruled an arson.

“You want to be there. You want to help out. You want to make it a better outcome,” said Kyle, who was on ambulance duty at the time. “We all take it pretty seriously when a brother firefighter gets hurt.”

Although Kyle’s current position is his first paying job as a firefighter, he already had a wealth of experience as a volunteer firefighter with the Mendham Fire Department, which honored Kyle in February for a decade of service.

Starting as a junior volunteer at the age of 16, Kyle would regularly assist Mendham firefighters with establishing water supplies, operating hydrants, stretching hoses and throwing ground ladders.

Because he was too young to drive, Kyle needed help from his parents to respond to fire calls that would sometimes come in the middle of the night.

“I’d wake them up, and they’d drive me to the firehouse,” Kyle recalled.

Mendham Fire Chief Rich DeNicola, who himself began as a junior volunteer five years ahead of Kyle, considers Kyle an exemplary firefighter and comrade.

“He’s a very respected guy in the fire department, and a pleasure to have around,” DeNicola said.

After turning 18, and having legal clearance to enter a burning structure, Kyle also volunteered with the Humane Engine Company in Morristown, earning high marks from Capt. Jim Schultz of the Morristown Fire Bureau.

“He’s a model firefighter, a guy you would trust your back with,” said Schultz, whose own son — in testament to the close-knit nature of the fraternity of firefighters — works with Kyle as a volunteer firefighter in Prince Georges County. “I like the fact that he’s a friend of my son.”

While continuing to hone his skills as a volunteer firefighter, Kyle worked as an EMT and paramedic for several local emergency squads, and at the Somerset Medical Center, where Kelly was also employed before joining the FDNY.

In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, Kyle traveled to the Gulf Coast to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, assisting with relief efforts that spanned from Biloxi, Miss., to Galveston, Texas.

“We went door to door with medical supplies and food, and helped set people up in trailers,” Kyle said.

Meantime, the bond between Kyle and Kelly grew even stronger, with Kelly eager to follow in her brother’s footsteps.

“He was the brother that picked on me the most growing up,” said Kelly, the lone girl and youngest of the four Hastings children. “But once I got to high school, we became super close.”

Kelly largely credits Kyle for motivating her to forgo the temptations of the Jersey Shore, and spend the summer following her junior year at West Morris Mendham High School taking an accelerated EMT course that allowed her to volunteer with the Mendham First Aid Squad as a senior.

“My friends would always joke that I was ‘the lifesaver,’ ” Kelly said. “When I volunteered, I loved it.”

Along with loving their jobs, the two have acclimated well to their new surroundings, with Kelly having already ditched her car for the subway, confining her driving to the ambulance.

Kyle and his wife, Kym — high school sweethearts who met in a cooking class at West Morris Mendham — are expecting their first child in April, after which, Kyle said, he wants to help Kym realize her goal of operating a day care center.

A career in firefighting and emergency services might not fit the typical career path for children raised in affluent Mendham, admits Kyle, whose brothers, Ryan, 29, and Tyler, 24, are investment bankers.

However, Kyle said that he and his sister have received nothing but support from their mother, Donna, and father, Peter Hastings, owner of P.B. Hastings Carpentry in Mendham.

His mother, in fact, said she believes that Kyle might have started a new family tradition.

“What drew Kelly to this career was seeing her brother loving it so much, and being very fulfilled,” Donna Hastings said. “When she graduated (from the FDNY training academy), it was a very proud day for my husband, myself and their siblings.”

Although the children have left home, Donna Hastings said that she and her husband still listen to the fire scanner. “But the volume is up a lot more when Kyle returns to Mendham,” she added.


Credit: Written by Dave Garey For NJ Press Media. Read this article on dailyrecord.com. Published March 18, 2012.