Firefighters often keep mementos that define their careers,
according to Hollister resident Zoltan Szucs, a volunteer fireman
for several area departments during the past 27 years.
Firefighters often keep mementos that define their careers, according to Hollister resident Zoltan Szucs, a volunteer fireman for several area departments during the past 27 years.
Most save their first badges. Some have a couple of hose nozzles. And all of them seem to own an alarm box, he said.
Szucs, who said “I do nothing small,” takes his passion for the occupation well beyond the standard.
“If I do something, I do the max,” said Szucs, scruffy-faced and wearing a Hollister Fire Department T-shirt Wednesday.
In his case, it’s hard to argue against that sentiment. Szucs moved to Hollister in 2000 and built a 2,400 square-foot structure – the size of a small barn – next to his house to help accommodate his collection of seven fire trucks.
The vehicles range from an 1856 hand-pumper to a 1971 bright red Seagrave. Each is fully outfitted with necessary equipment used by fire departments, including hoses, ladders and scanners.
And while the rigs and their colossal presence provide Szucs celebrity status in the neighborhood – especially among children – the “antiques” as he calls them, are a small portion of his personal treasure. They only begin to reflect the magnitude of his fixation.
“I’ve got a fire alarm collection, a nozzle collection, a hydrant collection, all kinds of different collections.”
Szucs has never tallied his fire service relics, though he estimated it may have about 2,000 items. He displays most of them in the house. Although he recently had the collection appraised, including the rigs, he didn’t feel comfortable sharing its worth.
“After athletes and war heroes, the fire service is one of the few with such a mystique and background.”
His ambition of being a firefighter spawned as an 8-year-old when he took his first tour of an engine. Now 43, after volunteering longer than some firefighters have lived, Szucs has never reached his goal of full-time sworn status within a department.
Regardless, he hasn’t turned sour on the profession. His affection has only multiplied as he continues to pursue his “calling.”
Meanwhile, the large garage, mostly cramped by tightly parked rigs, otherwise resembles the environment of a functioning fire station, or museum.
His array of authentic fire coats and helmets hang from the back wall. He has antique alarm boxes and indicators, which pinpointed locations of fires. He owns “eight or nine” hydrants, but no dogs.
He built a story-high loft where, he said, “You can sit down, have a beer and overlook the collection.” The loft is bordered by an old-fashioned fire pole, which he occasionally slides down.
A banner hanging from a rafter reads “Welcome Firemen.” Numerous American flags garnish the property.
The artifacts offer a backdrop for the garage’s modern diversions. He has a TV, a poker table, an oak bar and a firefighter-themed pinball machine.
“Neighbors come by and have a beer. It’s kind of the clubhouse of the neighborhood.”
Szucs built the structure to preserve the trucks and other fire service artifacts. But he had another reason, a business rationale, for the extravagant construction.
A ‘show business’ on the side
While living in Campbell in 1992, he bought his first rig, also the first one he drove as a 17-year-old. His fiance at the time wasn’t a fan of his bizarre purchase, “because I bought this instead of china for the up-and-coming wedding.”
“She left me because I bought the fire truck,” said Szucs, who has never married. “She didn’t understand I grew up with it.”
Soon after, however, Szucs hit a stroke of luck. Warner Bros. asked the San Jose Fire Department to lend the studio an engine to film the movie “Mad City.” The SJFD declined but referred the studio to Szucs, then a volunteer with the Campbell Fire Department.
Warner Bros. not only contracted Szucs for use of his engine, but the agent also asked him to act in the movie, “because I look like a fireman.”
That experience has since evolved into a side business. He lends his trucks to entertainment companies and offers his acting services, and he recruits other area firefighters for the acting jobs.
He worked periodically on the CBS television show “Nash Bridges” for six years. Most recently, he worked on the movie “Hulk,” which is scheduled for release June 20.
“I should be in one of those scenes where fire trucks drive up. I play the fire chief in one of the scenes.”
He has been featured in books, calendars and magazines. And his business now includes birthdays, weddings and proms.
“I’m in a magazine shoot where this guy’s apartment is on fire and he’s pushing his 60-inch television out the patio door. A group of us are holding a life net to rescue him, but he wants to save his television.”
Aside from the thrill of working in show biz, Szucs said he continued working in the entertainment industry because Hollywood has historically misrepresented firefighters, a tendency he wanted to help change.
An ageless wonderment
Szucs was born in San Jose and spent most of his life in Campbell. He joined the CFD at 15 and eventually attended Mission College’s fire science program. When he turned 21, he started testing and interviewing to become a sworn firefighter, but he limited himself to Santa Clara County, because “I wanted to work where I grew up.”
He said he came “very very” close to being hired on several occasions.
“I found a lot of it’s skill and experience, but a lot of it is just luck.”
In the meantime, he was chosen by his chief in Campbell to be an assistant teacher at Mission College, where he remained 15 years while pursuing sworn positions and working as a volunteer fireman.
“For a while there, I said, ‘This isn’t going to happen as easily as I thought.'”
While his firefighting aspirations never transpired according to plan, he has still enjoyed “an admirable career.”
At one time, he volunteered at three different departments, including Hollister’s, while also working full-time. He won a Medal of Valor for the Santa Clara County Fire Department in 1999 for helping extinguish an enflamed tanker on Highway 17 on Thanksgiving at 1 a.m.
In June 2003 when a neighbor approached Szucs’ house and told him about a fire a couple blocks away, Szucs impulsively jumped in his Seagrave rig and drove toward the smoke.
“I rounded the corner at the driveway and said, ‘What am I doing, what am I doing?’ Because it’s not exactly something you do.”
He arrived at the fire, which covered 1/4 to 1/3 of an acre, and knew to park away from the blaze and “protect the structure.” Szucs said he started “knocking down” the fire as it was six or seven feet from a barn housing two horses.
When the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection pulled up, “I was winding up the hose with nine volunteers.”
He approached Battalion Chief Jeff Row dreading he would be “chewed out or arrested.”
“He (Row) said, ‘Zoltan, I don’t have a problem with you protecting your neighborhood.'”
One month later, Szucs came across another grass fire in the neighborhood, this time in a creek bed. When he arrived, flames were moving up a hill toward a home’s fence, where Szucs presided over dousing the hillside.
“I think anybody would do the same thing, it’s human nature.”
Hollister Fire Chief Bill Garringer said Szucs would do “just about anything for anybody if you asked him.” He said Szucs is known by most firefighters working in the county.
However, Garringer removed him from the HFD because Szucs’ overloaded schedule restricted his availability.
“I was with four departments, and it was taking its toll on relationships, and I just couldn’t provide the dedication to all of them equally.”
Szucs started working full-time for the SJFD two years ago, but not as a sworn firefighter. He is manager of the air room, where he fixes equipment that breaks in the field.
Though he doesn’t work the front lines, Szucs said he is comfortable with his current situation.
“It’s being with a fire department. It’s being with the family of fire service, and it’s an important job.”
