By Tom Reed
The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
NORWICH TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Blue Jackets prospect Adam Pineault knows the importance of taking short shifts in a hockey game.
But this week as he enters a smoke-filled house, lugging a fire hose and searching for victims, Pineault will learn a dire lesson in time management.
With 70 pounds of flame-retardant equipment strapped to his body, Pineault will accompany Norwich Township firefighters in a simulated house fire. The 22-year-old forward has spent the summer volunteering a few hours a week at Station 83 learning what it takes to become a firefighter.
The hands he used to score 21 goals last season for the Jackets’ top farm club are being used to administer CPR and feel around for unconscious victims trapped in a burning room.
“It’s amazing how much knowledge these guys need to perform their jobs,” Pineault said. “It’s about a lot more than putting out fires.”
Hockey has been Pineault’s passion from almost the time he learned to grip a stick in Holyoke, Mass. In recent years, he also has developed an interest in firefighting.
Arriving in Columbus for voluntary offseason conditioning in June, Pineault impulsively began calling local firehouses and eventually found a station willing to accept him in a ride-along program.
Norwich firefighter Jeromy Archey said Station 83 usually attracts students from medic or fire school. Pineault is the company’s first pro athlete.
“Adam has fit in great with the guys,” said Archey, a Blue Jackets fan. “He chips in and does whatever is asked, cleaning up around the station or loading hoses on the truck.”
Blue Jackets management can rest easy. The department won’t allow Pineault to handle anything more dangerous than burnt toast in the station’s kitchen.
Next week’s simulated house fire will include no flames, only smoke machines. Pineault won’t even be permitted roof access, where firemen often bust holes to gain entry.
“If he goes with us to a fire he will have to stay back by the truck and maybe help with the hoses,” Archey said.
Pineault has assisted on one call, riding in a distinctive yellow Norwich truck in response to a complaint of a resident burning leaves. The man doused the flames with his garden hose.
“It seems like the moment I leave the station they get real busy,” Pineault said.
The third-year pro spent Wednesday afternoon practicing his CPR skills on a rescue dummy. With about 10 firefighters monitoring his technique, he feverishly compressed the mannequin’s sternum.
Pineault also placed a breathing mask on its mouth and used a stethoscope to determine whether a tracheal tube had been properly positioned.
“Now that’s a photo that should be hanging up in the locker room,” firefighter Tom Bolin said.
Pineault loves the camaraderie among firefighters and likens the banter and jocularity to a locker-room environment.
When it’s time to work, however, Pineault says the mood is all business. He already had a healthy respect for emergency personnel prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“I was 15 years old and I remember coming back from school in the morning and turning on the TV just as one of the towers (of the World Trade Center) was collapsing,” Pineault said. “These guys are the heroes, the ones running into a building as everyone else is running out.”
Pineault, who got married two weeks ago, plans to pursue his firefighting ambitions as a possible second career after hockey.
He was surprised to learn 80 percent of the calls for small stations like Norwich are for emergency medical services and not fires. Two weeks ago, he was in Dublin as part of a triage team responding to a simulated catastrophe.
“You think it’s all like Rescue Me, but it isn’t,” Pineault said of his favorite television program.
He has spent most of the summer preparing for the upcoming season. The right winger made his NHL debut last spring, playing three games with the Jackets.
That first taste motivated him to trim 15 pounds from his 6-foot-1, 220-pound frame to improve his quickness.
“Adam is a player with a good shot, a quick release,” Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. “He’s still learning what it takes to compete at this level.”
With so many NHL-ready additions, Pineault likely will start the season with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League.
Hitchcock, however, is not afraid to elevate productive players. Pineault’s friend, forward Andrew Murray, made the jump last season.
His buddies at Station 83 are hoping Pineault can ignite some simulated cannon fires inside Nationwide Arena.
“I’ve already told them that if I’m here for the home opener,” Pineault said, “I’m buying tickets for everybody.”
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