Oakmont recently welcomed four new firefighters to its volunteer department.

The new recruits include three teenagers, and one senior member with more than 45 years fighting fires for another community.

They are junior firefighters Jackson Carangio, 17, and Anthony Segelson, 16, Michigan State University sophomore Seth Merryman, 19, and longtime Penn Hills firefighter-turned-borough-resident John Richey, 71.

“They’re very well-educated and highly motivated,” said fire Chief Dave Carroll. “We’re truly blessed. We’ve got the right guys. We’ve got the right mix. We’ve got the age group that is helping to support our leadership positions in the fire service.”

The new additions bring the department to 23 firefighters. Its charter caps active membership at 25.

“We are thrilled that we’ve got a solid bunch of highly skilled and trained firefighters out of that number,” Carroll said.

Richey served as a firefighter for Penn Hills Station 227 for almost five decades. He hopes to pass on his knowledge to the younger generation.

“I just moved down here to Oakmont and wanted to get involved,” said Richey. “I enjoy helping people, helping the fire hall (and) making sure it operates. If you don’t have the younger group, you’re going to lose your fire hall. These older guys are going to disappear, and there’s not going to be any fire hall if you don’t have the younger guys come in. As long as I can and as long as the body works, I’ll (answer calls).”

Merryman is majoring in international relations, political theory and constitutional democracy with a minor in political economy. He sees firefighters as possible role models.

“When we look at the international community, we have a lot of people that need to be heroes,” he said. “We live in such an interesting world where we need everyone to have someone to look up to. I believe the fire department has been a company that we can always continue to look up to and do good for us, make us look good and help the community.”

Merryman said he is the first member of his family to join a fire department.

Jackson is a senior and Anthony a sophomore at Riverview High School. They and Merryman said they joined to help support their friend and Oakmont’s first junior firefighter, Joey Flanick, who joined the fire department last year.

Jackson said he hopes to learn life-saving skills and help people.

Anthony said he plans on making a career out of firefighting.

All were sworn in by Mayor Chris Whaley at the Oct. 19 council meeting.

“I was happy to see two new junior members,” Whaley said. “The last 10 years there has been a significant drop-off on the amount of people willing to participate in a volunteer fire program. That’s nationwide. I applaud our fire department for taking the initiative to make a junior program available. Any time you can find people at a young age that want to volunteer to help their community is a good thing.”

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