At left, a Facebook photo of Bellmore volunteer firefighter Justin...

At left, a Facebook photo of Bellmore volunteer firefighter Justin Angell, who was shot and wounded by during a rescue call in Bellmore near Claxton Avenue, right, Tuesday night. Police continued their investigation Wednesday morning. (March 2, 2011) Credit: Facebook.com Image (left); Howard Schnapp

It happens almost every night. In Bellmore and other communities across Long Island.

First comes the call; then comes the response, as citizen firefighters and EMTs jump into action.

On Tuesday evening, however, during a routine call, something almost unimaginable happened.

A volunteer firefighter who also is an emergency medical technician jumped out of an ambulance in Bellmore to be met by a hail of bullets from a high-powered weapon.

"I saw him on his knees on my neighbor's lawn," said Andres Aguilera, who lives down the street from where the shooter's car hit a telephone pole.

"I saw an ambulance pull to the corner and two guys jumped out and ran to the lawn and lifted him up to the ambulance," Aguilera said Wednesday.

Robert Taylor, chief of department in Bellmore, would say later that the firefighters used the vehicle as a shield to prevent further injury to the wounded man, Justin Angell.

"People are shocked," Taylor said. "This does not happen. You go to help your neighbor and this is what you get when you pull up?"

Taylor is right. This never happens on Long Island.

"I heard the news and my stomach twisted," said John Murray, who handles education programs at the Nassau County Firefighters Museum & Education Center in Garden City. "I have never, ever heard of such a thing happening in Nassau in my entire career," he said.

Richard Vella, president of the Suffolk County Firemen's Association, agreed. "It is unthinkable that a volunteer . . . would be met by gunfire," he said.

Vella pointed to an incident last November, when a man police described as mentally ill brandished - but did not fire - a gun when firefighters responded to a blaze at his West Babylon home.

The man was shot by police after he jumped out of a window with the weapon. He later died of his injuries.

In 2009, a volunteer firefighter and paid EMT in upstate Cape Vincent was shot and killed by a man during a call.

"I went to that young man's funeral and you never get over a thing like that," said David Jacobowitz, president of the volunteer Firemen's Association of the State of New York.

Still, volunteers said they did not believe that Tuesday's incident would significantly impact ongoing recruiting efforts - or how they do their jobs.

Long Island, more than most regions, relies almost exclusively on volunteer firefighters, EMTs and paramedics. Only two municipalities - Garden City and Long Beach - have paid departments (and Long Beach also has a second, volunteer one.)

But many departments in the region have been aggressively recruiting new members because the number of volunteers has been falling off.

"My sense is that volunteers will keep volunteering because it gets into your blood," said Murray. He said that in Nassau, classes at the fire academy usually are full.

"We get them young, but lose them three or four years later because they can't afford to live on Long Island," he said.

In Nassau and Suffolk, volunteer firefighters do not wait for police when responding to calls and, firefighters said, Tuesday's shooting is no reason to change that.

"This was about one bad guy," said Vella.

In Bellmore, Robert Taylor, chief of department, agreed.

He said that the department - which has 165 members, from teenagers to a firefighter in his 80s - would meet about the incident.

"We probably want to train to be even more careful," he said. "But we've got a job to do and we intend to keep doing it."

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