A Man With The Right Talents, At The Right Time And Place

Most people would run out of a burning building. It is surprising for anyone to go into one, at least not without firefighting equipment on. But on April 15, Jeff Slotoroff did just that when he saw that a house at 50 Maple Ave. in Mount Kisco was burning.

Slotoroff, 22, is a professional paramedic with Westchester EMS and a lieutenant with the Yorktown Heights Volunteer Fire Department. It is a perfect combination of talents to have if you need to get people out of a burning building. 

Even more surprising than his bravery, however, is that few people who know Slotoroff were surprised at his actions. "I expected this of him. If you had not given me a name and told me what happened, I would have told you it was Jeff," said Jackie Sullivan, a lieutenant with the Yorktown fire department. "He really puts his heart and soul into it."

"It is exactly what I would expect Jeff to do," said Al Kim, executive director of Westchester EMS, the not-for-profit emergency medical service serving eight towns in Northern Westchester.

It was purely accidental that Slotoroff was driving down Maple Avenue that evening. He had been returning in an EMS fly car from a 911 call to help a woman who was having difficulty breathing at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, and went down Maple Avenue to avoid traffic on Main Street.

"I saw light black smoke coming up," Slotoroff recalled. He saw that the smoke was getting darker as he passed the building, a house divided into four apartments, and turned his fly car--an emergency response vehicle that is equipped for dealing with medical emergencies but is not an ambulance--and saw the flames.

"I called for back up and stated the location," he said. He used the radio frequency that is reserved for fire departments and described exactly where on the house the flames and smoke were visible.

"I ran up to the front door and started banging on the door," Slotoroff said. "I ripped at it and the door flew open." The front door in the house leads directly to a stairway that goes up to another door, which he also banged on and then kicked open. He alerted the residents there to evacuate and then went up to an attic apartment to get the people living there out.

By the time Slotoroff  got out of the house again, Mount Kisco police were there. He and Officer James Whalen of the Mount Kisco Police Department ran around the side of the house to an apartment with a separate ground floor entrance. "That was where the fire was," he said.

Slotoroff and Whalen went in and split up, with the officer going one way and shutting doors to cut off air to the fire. When Slotoroff reached a closed bedroom, he banged on the door and found a woman sleeping who he had to shake awake. "There was black smoke in the apartment, but it hadn't gotten low," he said, describing the scene. He, the woman and Whalen got out of the building just as the first fire truck arrived.

Although Slotoroff is 6 foot 4 and 230 pounds, he said that it was adrenaline that helped him kick the doors open. He pointed out that the house had no fire detectors. It is empty now, and the back of the building shows serious fire damage.

"He did everything the right way. He called for backup first," said Kim. "He was thinking throughout his actions."

Although he is an experienced firefighter, he didn't expect to be faced with a fire while on duty as a paramedic. "When I go to work, I expect other kinds of emergencies," he said.

Slotoroff is a bit uncomfortable with the recognition he has been receiving since the fire. "I don't like the attention," he said. His coworkers at Westchester EMS have been gently kidding him about his new fame, offering a visitor autographed pictures of him.

Slotoroff expects to make a career of being a paramedic. "There is always something different every day," he said. He joined Westchester EMS three years ago as a dispatcher and emergency medical technician, and then became a paramedic a year ago. A paramedic is the most advanced level emergency medical technician, and can give drugs, start intravenous lines and use portable defibrillators. "We get to do the cool stuff," Slotoroff said.

He joined the Yorktown Heights Fire Department when he was 18, "and I've loved it ever since." His twin brother, Sam, is a career firefighter with the Waterbury (CT) Fire Department. "Police, fire, EMS. We are all doing the same thing: public safety," he said.