Dual Careers: The Firefighting Lab Owner

As soon as the alarm sounded at the firehouse in 1999, Captain Bill Matwijec, CDT—also the owner of Aesthetic Dental Lab, Rome, NY—was on his firetruck headed toward the scene: a large house fire where a two-year-old girl was trapped inside. Matwijec and a fellow fireman entered the burning building to rescue her from her second-floor bedroom. After battling smoke and flames for several tense minutes, the first firefighter found the toddler and handed her to Matwijec who then handed her down the ladder to safety.

“We could barely see anything through the smoke and flames, but we all worked together to rescue that little girl,” he says.

Nights like that are why Matwijec has made not one, but two full-time careers out of helping others for three decades. He’s been a member of the Rome, NY, Fire Department for 30 years and a technician since 1977.

The Fire Department receives about 5,000 calls a year, about 10 on an average day. Most...