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| Northville Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian Siriani |
Serendipity was the force behind his career choice. Siriani attended Wayne State University, where he played football. He said his goals were to go into elementary education and coach football. On a Friday night, however, as he visited a close friend who was a paid on-call firefighter for Northville Township, those plans changed. While Siriani was visiting, his friend was dispatched to a nearby house fire and invited Siriani to observe the scene. That moment changed the trajectory of his career, he said.
“I got to see the camaraderie between the crews,” Siriani said. “I saw how they treated the homeowners with compassion, how the team environment reminded me a lot of a football team except I was watching them put out the fire. The next day, I told my mom I was going to make a career change and I enrolled in the Schoolcraft Fire Academy and left Wayne State.”
While his mom was upset at the time, he said, his career success indicates he made the right choice. Siriani was named the next deputy chief of the Brighton Area Fire Authority where he began his new position July 24.
Siriani joined Northville Township as a paid on-call firefighter in 1996 and became full-time in 1999. During his tenure, he said he watched the fire department evolve. His shift when he first joined was 8 hours and comprised two people, then his shift increased to 16 hours in 1999 with four firefighters and then in May 2000, he worked the first 24-hour shift in Northville Township, which continues to this day, Now there are 11 firefighters rather than only two.
Siriani became a team leader on the Western Wayne County Hazardous Materials Response Team (HAZMAT) where he served for 19 years; was a hazardous materials specialist with the Michigan Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), Task Force 1, and served as both a local union president and on the union executive board for 18 years.
“Battalion Chief Siriani will definitely be remembered as a great person in addition to his extreme passion for the fire service,” Northville Township Fire Chief Brent Siegel said. “He has been excellent in developing and maintaining relationships which has been key to his success as a leader.
“He was a major contributor to the growth of our department and will continue to use his strong skill set developed in Northville Township to serve the Brighton Area Fire Authority as their new deputy chief.”
While working full time, Siriani finished up his bachelor's degree in public safety studies at Siena Heights University and earned a master's degree in technology from Eastern Michigan University.
He also bonded with his fellow firefighters while living with them 24-hours a day.
“When you work a 24-hour shift, you are spending almost a third of your life with the same people,” Siriani said. “You see everybody's ups and downs. You see everybody's happy moments and sometimes their sad moments. You're part of their family.”
His colleagues stepped up when his wife, Allison, had cancer surgery during the COVID lockdown.
“I never felt alone,” he said. “Every single person in the fire department, the township administration, the manager's office, literally every single person reached out to me and I'll never forget that.”
“I hope to be known for - I just hope people say I'm a good person,” Siriani said.
“I know that's simplistic, but really, I just hope people say, if they mentioned my name here, that I was a good person.”
