OSSINING, N.Y. — Dominic Raguso was at Ossining High School for a football practice Thursday when he learned the Landmark Diner in Briarcliff Manor, where he and teammates often grabbed a meal, was on fire.
Time for the 17-year-old Raguso to swap his football helmet for his Millwood volunteer firefighter one.
“I looked over my shoulder and I see black smoke pushing from the sky,” he said Friday.
Before long, Raguso, who is entering his senior year, was with two other firefighters aloft in the basket at the end of a truck ladder. They sprayed water on the diner’s roof and at other times cut through it. They helped probe for hot spots.
Football practice would resume in the afternoon, so when he arrived at the fire scene he saw his father Christopher Raguso, an assistant fire chief with the Millwood Fire Company.
“They told me to go grab your gear and go to work,” Dominic Raguso said.
“I would say it was one of the more intense fires I’ve been to,” with heavy smoke, he said.
Around 2:45 p.m., Raguso headed back to football practice. It ended a little early — so he returned to the fire scene to work some more.
