Hanging out with Durham Firefighter Pete Leavitt

Our person we chose to work with for our project on the unsung heroes of UNH is firefighter Pete Leavitt.  Pete is a forty two year old resident of Alton, New Hampshire.  Leavitt is listed as a firefighter and EMT Intermediate, and has worked as a firefighter for eight years and two and half years in Durham.  Prior to being a firefighter, Leavitt was a chef.  Leavitt told me of over seventy people that applied for the job in Durham, Leavitt was the only remaining candidate through a rigorous application process.   This means Pete does things from putting out fires to administering the jaws of life to tear open cars to save victims from automobile accidents.  Leavitt is known around the station as the handyman of the house.  On Leavitt’s shifts that last 24 hours and usually two days a week he is busy fixing equipment, completing essential paperwork, out on calls or in the kitchen preparing the entire stations meals.  When I entered the fire department, I gained an immediate sense of family and togetherness amongst the firefighters.  They crack jokes, rag on each other like brothers do, but always do their work with complete seriousness.  Inside the house, an array of photographs with different teams of firefighters line the wall with fires they have worked on.  The pictures tell stories and help preserve the tradition of one of the oldest jobs in the United States.  Leavitt and other firefighters explained the responsibility of being a firefighter in Durham and how the job requires only the sharpest individuals for the job.  All Durham firefighters are required to know the location of every hydrant in the town, the complex fire codes for every building of the university as well being on the scene to calls in the surrounding towns of Madbury, Dover and Lee.  Leavitt says the job comes with great responsibility, but he says he loves the people he works with and things he does everyday at the station.