Lincoln’s newest firefighter wins top award from academy

Thomas Pianka, Lincoln’s newest full-time firefighter, received the Richard N. Bangs Award upon his recent graduation from the Massachusetts Fire Academy. More recently, he and his family got something even better — a baby boy.

Pianka, a Hudson resident with Lincoln roots, had been working as a per diem probationary firefighter in town since July 2020. He’s the third generation in his family to serve in the profession — his father Jaime, who grew up in Lincoln, worked as firefighter here until he got a position in Sudbury, and his great-great uncle was a Boston firefighter.

Tom had some basic training and experience as an on-call firefighter in Vermont that qualified him for the Lincoln per diem position until he graduated and was hired full-time. The Lincoln Fire Department had had a vacancy since Brian Young was promoted to fire chief in August 2020.

The MFA program is a high-intensity program that teaches essentials of fire and non-fire conditions, life safety, search and rescue, ladder operations, water supply, hazmat, confined space, and pump operation. The Department of Fire Services offers this class free of charge to all Massachusetts fire departments. Every career firefighter must complete the career recruit class. The Bangs award is given to the top recruit in each class.

Most towns including Lincoln require firefighters to be certified EMTs as well. This is actually a big part of the job, since both fire and police personnel respond when there’s a call for a medical issue. Structure fires are fortunately few and far between in Lincoln since the advent in recent years of various successful fire prevention measures.

“I was always interested in firefighting growing up — it seemed like a natural course,” Pianka said in phone call with the Lincoln Squirrel. Asked what he enjoyed most about the job, he said simply, “Service to the community. I like meeting everyone and there are lots of opportunities to help out.”

It’ll be a few years yet before we know if a fourth Pianka generation will go into firefighting. The newest family member, a boy named Kai, was born on December 12, joining his six-year-old stepsister.