By Sheena Delazio
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2007 The Times Leader
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — As the saying around Wilkes-Barre firehouses goes, “you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Ulichney.”
Brothers Mike, Bill and John Ulichney said the saying came from Chief Norm Davis, because you can’t look too far without seeing one of the brothers.
All three are full-time employees with the Wilkes-Barre Fire Department.
The trio hadn’t intended on becoming firefighters. They attended high school at Wilkes-Barre Area Vocational-Technical School, and each specialized in different trades. Mike took electrical; Bill, carpentry; and John preferred construction.
It all started when Bill, who is now a captain for the department, became a paramedic in 1990, and from there, took the civil service test, for which he brought John. Bill scored high, and was hired by the fire department. John also scored high, but there were no remaining positions, so he continued to work in construction.
In 1992, John joined the department, and then third brother Mike was encouraged to take the test and join the department.
The first-generation firefighters often question what prompted them to get into a career that involved battling flames or helping victims at an accident scene.
“We get nervous, and excited,” Bill said. “We often wonder, ‘what am I doing here?’ But we all know what we’re doing when we go in, and there are a lot of other guys with you.”
“Our mother instilled in us at an early age to help out when and if you can,” John said. “Our mother wanted us to be priests, like every mother wants. And I guess we are blessed, in a certain way.”
The Ulichneys have never all been dispatched to the same emergency, Bill said. “One time we were all called in to the same fire, and they sent one of us home.”
“Only ever two at one time,” Bill said. One of those instances was when Mike and Bill were dispatched to a fire on Carey Avenue. Bill had to go to the hospital for smoke inhalation, while Mike was helping put out the fire.
“That evening, people were asking me how my brother was, and I didn’t know what they were talking about. I was scared,” said Mike, who learned later of Bill having to spend some time in the hospital.
John said some co-workers had called him at home to let him know about Bill. The brothers say they talk to each other daily to keep in-check.
Maybe the Ulichney brothers didn’t plan on being firefighters, but John had thought about it when he was a youngster.
John, now 45, recalled a time when he was just 7-years-old, riding his bike when it suddenly broke. “I started crying and two firemen came out of the Number 5 fire house and brought me inside. They fixed my bike and gave me a soda. They were a good bunch of guys.”
That wasn’t John’s only run-in with firefighters. As a young boy he would go to the Number 5 fire house on Maple and North Main streets to pick up newspapers to deliver. “While I was waiting for the papers, the firemen would let me come inside,” John said. “I watched them and thought they had a pretty cool job.”
While the Ulichneys may have taken different paths in life to start out, they continue to do the things they really love when they’re not fighting fires.
Mike, 43, said he liked to travel, and in October was married in Hawaii. He also does some electrical work on the side, a trade he learned in high school.
Bill, 46, dabbles in community theater and the performing arts. He’s been in plays in New York, Stroudsburg and Abington Heights, and even auditioned for a role in the play “Jesus Christ Superstar,” where he landed a non-speaking part. “Once it’s in your blood, you keep doing it.”
John said the majority of his time off is spent with his three children, Jaclyn, Johnny and Jolene. “Between soccer practice, baseball, going here and there,” John said he and his wife are always on the go.
The brothers work on a three-day rotation schedule, three days on dayshift; three days off; three days on nightshift, three days off.
“But I think we all prefer nightshift,” Bill said. “Although I’ve never heard them complain because I’m their boss.”
When asked if they often find themselves in sibling quarrels, Bill said he and his brothers have more respect than yelling at each other. “Especially on the job. It’s just the way our mother raised us.”
“Our job is much more than firefighting,” Bill said. “It’s getting cats out of trees, ducks out of sewers, old ladies to their houses and being an emergency response specialist. Mainly just helping people.”
Each brother has their favorite story to tell: John tells of a call to rescue a pet snake from a recliner and Bill’s story involves a pet cat stuck in a stove.
But Mike had a different idea. “Doing CPR on someone is an exciting part of the job,” he said, adding that actually playing a role in saving someone’s life is thrilling.
Bill also recalls things that stand out most in his mind. The first time a helicopter landed in the city to fly a patient to Community Medical Center in Scranton, or when the first female paramedic started working with him. “Those things stand out the most.”
In addition to their firefighting and life-saving daily routines, the brothers must also attend classes to keep up with their skills and do chores around the firehouse, such as washing the fire engines or routine maintenance.
“Ninety percent of our job is sheer boredom and the other 10 percent is sheer panic,” Bill said, while Mike and John threw in “chaotic and an adrenaline rush.”
“They say firefighters have a brotherhood. And it really is a brotherhood. And in our case,” Bill said, of working side by side with his brothers, “it really is.”