‘Scary Moment’ Leads to West Hartford (CT) Firefighters Appearing on TV With Drew Barrymore, Denis Leary

Feb. 1—WEST HARTFORD — A mayday alert five years ago sparked a series of events that led to a group of West Hartford firefighters being on national television this week.

Twenty men and women, from deputy chief to rank-and-file firefighters, walked onto the set at “The Drew Barrymore Show” in New York City on Jan. 14. They were there to thank Barrymore’s guest, actor and comedian Denis Leary, for life-saving equipment they got from his foundation. The show aired Tuesday.

Deputy Chief Adam Pacheco applied for the $25,000 grant from the Leary Firefighters Foundation in 2021 for “bailout” kits, rope and harness systems that allow firefighters to quickly lower themselves out a window if they can’t escape the smoke and flames any other way.

It was a close call two years earlier that prompted the funding request, Pacheco said.

“We kind of had a scary moment in our department,” he told the famous actors as firefighters formed an arc behind them under the bright lights.

Firefighter Nikhom Eddie Keopraseuth was trapped on the second floor of a burning house on Oct. 24, 2019, prompting a mayday call. He ended up making his way to a window climbing onto a porch roof.

If the building didn’t have a porch and especially if it was taller, the ordeal could have had a different ending, Pacheco said in a phone interview. As he wrote in the grant application, “all growth is occurring vertically” in the densely-populated town, increasing the height from which a firefighter would fall during such an escape.

Pacheco wanted to buy bailout kits after the scare, but the COVID-19 pandemic struck, resulting in the closures of 28 local business, revenue losses and layoffs, he wrote in his six-page grant application.

The deputy chief submitted the application on Oct. 8, 2021 and it was approved fewer than two months later, he said.

Fast forward to December 2024. A producer from “The Drew Barrymore Show,” who knows recently-retired Deputy Chief Keith Albert, reached out to the West Hartford Fire Department, inviting them to the show to thank Leary in person. A contingent of firefighters made plans to make the trip to New York.

Leary, who Pacheco said was on the show promoting his new series, “Going Dutch,” talked a little bit about his foundation before Barrymore surprised him with the firefighters filing in from backstage, two at a time.

Leary and Barrymore shook hands with them and talked briefly about the Los Angeles wildfires, which were still raging at the time of the taping.

Barrymore asked what people can do to help, and Albert warned the viewing audience to “do your homework” before you donate because of scams.

The talk show host and actress then noted that one safe charity is Leary’s.

Leary, who played the role of a struggling firefighter in “Rescue Me,” started the foundation after his cousin and childhood friend died along with four other firefighters in the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co., fire in 1999. It provides funding for fire facilities and equipment, including trucks.

Asked what it was like being on a national stage, Pacheco said, “It definitely was unique.”

“It was kind of a step out of the comfort zone,” he said. “There are so many cameras in there, and you don’t know which one was on. There was no prep. We didn’t know what she was going to ask.”

Still, “it was a good opportunity for us to say thank you for something that helped the community,” Pacheco said. “At the end of the day, you’re shaking the hand of somebody who is doing it for the right reason.”

He said he doesn’t know if a bailout kit would have helped Leary’s cousin, but “either way, he’s doing the work to prevent it from happening again in other places.”

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