An eighth-grade assembly program about firefighting was all it took for Sean Marzen to know what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

“I wanted to so something different, something that isn’t the same thing every day,” said Marzen, who grew up in Jim Thorpe and signed on to be a junior firefighter with the Ninth Street station.

“I did the training every Monday night and I got to go on a lot of calls, but not until I turned 18 did I actually get to work the equipment and help put out fires.”

Marzen, now 21, and a fire science technology major at Harrisburg Area Community College and a volunteer for the Swatara Township Fire Department, put all of his training and instincts into operation at a recent house fire just down the road from his station.

“It took us three minutes for three of us to answer the call and get to the scene,” he said.

What they found was a duplex fully engulfed in fire on the front porch and first floor with smoke billowing from the second floor.

“Our call told us that there might be people entrapped inside. There were just the three of us at first so one hooked up the hose to a hydrant, another fed the hose off the truck and I approached the burning house.”

He found the front entrance inaccessible so he entered through a side door. His training taught him that fire is an immediate danger that can kill someone immediately and that smoke inhalation, once inside the lungs will render a victim unconscious before possibly causing an eventual death.

“Once I got inside the kitchen, I couldn’t see through the fire and smoke so I had to rely on my senses. I could hear someone groaning. I felt around the floor and moved toward the sound and I found an elderly woman lying on the floor.”

The woman, who Marzen believed was in her 70s, was “borderline unconscious.”

“I dropped my hose line and picked her up and carried her outside to a paramedic who had since arrived at the scene. She was groggy and there were burns on her body.”

The woman was transported by helicopter to Lehigh Valley Hospital. Marzen was later told she had no recollection of what happened.

Back at the scene, he then re-entered the house to find a small dog that had been lying on the floor next to the woman and proceeded to carry it outside to safety.

“The dog was nearly unconscious, too, but once we gave it some oxygen, it came around pretty quickly.”

There were three dogs in the house. Two were saved and one died.

From his training years to actually answering firefighting calls, Marzen has experienced the physical demands that come along with putting out fires. Hooking up 1,000 feet of supply line hose with a 5-inch diameter to pressurize a fire hose takes two or three men. Holding a water pressured hose while the fire is being extinguished can take as long as five hours and bring on weariness that leads to exhaustion.

The Swatara station is manned every day, all year, all the time without written schedules. “We just check in and make sure somebody’s always there,” he said.

“We answer between 700 to 900 calls a year because we’re close to many big cities.”

When asked about the emotional reaction to rescuing people inside burning buildings, Marzen said you get used to doing what you have to do in the moment.

“I can’t get emotional because then I can’t be counted on to do my job at the scene.”

He added that firefighters must keep their wits about them and not put themselves inside a burning building that might lead to grave consequences.

At HACC, he is learning about fire behavior and how to counterattack its force and direction. A volunteer now, he would like to be a full-time paid firefighter once he earns his degree.

At age 21, Sean Marzen is already a hero. The honor comes with saving lives from dangerous fires, but to him, firefighting is just a different adventure in life that is uncommon to most of the world he lives in.

“I enjoy it,” he said. “It’s just a cool thing to do.”