It was a little more than 10 years ago when Capt. Rich Tricarico and a team of firefighters of Fairfax County Fire Department's Station Four, based in Herndon, picked up the call of a house fire in Great Falls.
Tricarico and his men were the first to arrive on the scene to find a substantial fire ripping through the house. The other station was still several minutes away and Tricarico had to make a decision of whether to wait for back up or lead his team into the house.
"A lot of people wouldn't have even thought about saving that house, but we went in and we were able to get that fire under control pretty quickly," said Lt. Eric Erlendson a firefighter who was on the scene of the fire. "That's what Rich can do. He knows how to handle himself and a team in a fire and knows exactly what to expect."
Erlendson, who is now with Fairfax County Fire Department Station 25 in Reston, served under Tricarico as part of "B Shift" at Herndon's Station Four for 16 years before being transferred just a couple months ago.
Tricarico "has such a high level of respect with the guys in the station," said Erlendson. "He's the best firefighter in this country in my eyes."
After serving with the Fairfax County Fire Department for 28 years — including 18 years as a captain at Herndon's Station Four — Tricarico, 52, will be hanging up his jacket for the last time. He is scheduled to retire this November.
TRICARICO BEGAN his career with the Fairfax County Fire Department after moving from his birthplace of Long Island, N.Y., to Northern Virginia when he heard about openings in the county's firefighter recruitment school.
But being a firefighter wasn't his only plan.
"[I] applied with police departments, fire departments, the sheriff's department," said Tricarico, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a neatly-trimmed mustache and thick forearms. "I was always interested in the public service end of it, but the pension, the [job] security, working in an upcoming area — all that was a big part of it."
It was being a firefighter that fit Tricarico best, he said, and he began his career with the Fairfax County Fire Department at 24-years-old.
"The ability to show up to a job and really have the opportunity to make a real difference every day would be the most rewarding aspect of" being a firefighter, Tricarico said.
He attributes some of his ability to deal with the organized chaos of fighting a fire with his youth in New York City.
"Growing up in New York, I used to work in Manhattan, and there's always a bunch of crazy [stuff] going around you all the time, on every corner," Tricarico said, the remnants of a New York accent peaking through in his words. "When you deal with a fire, it's nothing new. You're having to deal with a whole lot of [stuff] happening all around you."
IT'S NOT JUST HIS experience that generates the respect he commands among his fellow firefighters and members of his shift, but his attitude towards the people he leads, said Robert Pilsucki, a firefighter at Station Four. Pilsucki has worked under Tricarico since arriving to Station 4 in 1998.
"I'll put it to you this way, I'll follow him anywhere," Pilsucki said. "He is extremely calm on the scene — I've never seen someone be able to handle a situation the way he has. A lot of guys can come unscrewed really quickly, but not him."
Pilsucki said that among the qualities he respects most in Tricarico as a leader is that he is honest about how he feels about somebody and doesn't hide when he's angry. Most importantly is his willingness and loyalty in standing up for his firefighters, Pilsucki added.
"The people above you, I've never had too much interest in pleasing them," Tricarico added. "Those people above you, they're not the ones who have your back when you're in a building."
But Tricarico doesn't take full credit for his success as a firefighter, pointing out that the job in any emergency always comes down to a team.
"The secret is, I've worked with some really great officers, and they've been able to keep a level head more than anyone," he said. "I guess I was lucky enough to be around so many great firefighters."
ALMOST 30 YEARS of being a firefighter doesn't come without its share of stories.
Tricarico remembers his time working in Annandale in the early-'80s.
It seemed that every time a call for a medic would come in to his station from a particular resident, a fire would erupt soon after. He could attribute as many as six fires that occurred after responding to a call to this resident.
"It got to the point where we'd say, "oh, the medic's going to [the resident's home], get ready for a fire," he said. "When we brought it up to the [resident's] daughter, she kind of chuckled."
According to the daughter, when her mother was younger and would travel to different countries in Europe, a government leader would typically die or be killed shortly after her arrival.
"So you get weird things like that every now and then," Tricarico said.
ALMOST 30 YEARS of fighting fires also brings with it an added cost. Tricarico was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2004; a condition he said can be directly attributed to his exposure to smoke and other chemicals throughout his career as a firefighter.
Fighting and beating the cancer proved to be a significant struggle in Tricarico's life.
"The word cancer, you hear it everyday, but you never think that you'd end up with it," Tricarico said.
Through treatment and the support of his family over the last two years, Tricarico has been diagnosed as free of the cancer.
Learning he had the condition didn't change his sense of humor about it, according to his fellow firefighters, who pointed out that he bought a motorcycle and named it in honor of the cancer operation he had.
He said that even as he had to battle cancer, he never regretted the decision he made to become a firefighter.
WHILE RETIREMENT might mean the end of his career as a firefighter, Tricarico said it will not mean that he is slowing down.
His family life includes Kathy, his wife of 30 years, and his three sons Robert, 26, Kenny, 25 and Steven, 21. He plans on working with his son Kenny doing carpentry work in Northern Virginia.
Looking back on his career as a firefighter, he said that while he sees the work he and others have done as heroic, he can't label himself a hero.
"I see the profession as a hero," Tricarico said. "A lot of guys have been out there who have done this a long time, a lot longer than me."
Pilsucki said that Tricarico's attitude and experience as a firefighter and a leader will be missed around the station.
"We're losing a lot of experience and, I guess, part of the old way of being a firefighter when he walks out that door," Pilsucki said. "There aren't that many guys out there who can do the job like he does."