Twice a week, Daniel Archino heads to the firehouse at 7:30 a.m. to begin his shift as a city firefighter. After 24 hours on duty, he changes into a fresh set of clothes and walks one block north to Houlihan Lawrence — where he works as a real estate agent.
This January, the real estate firm announced that Archino, 27, had joined its Rye office. It mentioned that he was “born, raised, and educated in Rye.”
Actually, “I was born in Greenwich Hospital,” Archino clarified in a call with The Record, as if that was the first and last time he was affiliated with anywhere other than the city. He graduated from Rye High School and divides his time between Rye and Pleasantville with his fiancé Emily and dog Buddy.
Grinning, he added: “But yeah, Rye kid my whole life.”
Behind Archino hung a poster of a Gatsby-esque home in a garden surrounded by a lake — he was calling from the real estate office, having just gotten off his 24-hour shift at the firehouse that morning.
After working as a firefighter with Rye Fire Department for four years, “I was looking for something to do on my days off,” said Archino, adding that he likes to keep busy without letting either job take over.
“I’m fortunate that I can give each [job] 110 percent due to the balance,” he said. The phrase “110 percent” he used often during the call, always in reference to his seemingly well-compartmentalized dedication to each profession.
The extra 10 percent perhaps pertains to a third set of skills Archino possesses: cooking.
When at the firehouse, the chef is tasked with cooking dinner for his fellow firefighters, whom he calls his “second family.” Depending on the day, he works out of both city firehouses — on Milton Road and Locust Avenue — and at the end of the day, the firefighters from both houses meet to have dinner together.
Photo Mayra Kalaora
Photo Mayra Kalaora
Usually, out of the 22 professional firefighters on staff, there are around six or seven on shift, according to Archino. And they all pitch to pay for the groceries.
Archino does the shopping.
Keeping things on a budget, sometimes he has to get creative. “You know, we’re not having filet mignon every night,” he joked (except for Christmas Eve, when he did in fact make filet mignon for the crew).
After food shopping, Archino heads back to the firehouse and takes over its kitchen. His favorite dish to cook is a lomo saltado — a Peruvian beef stir fry.
Firefighter Brandon Antolino also gave Archino’s sausage and peppers a thumbs-up. But his favorite Archino dish is his baked broccoli and cauliflower. He called the burgeoning chef a “kind gentleman.”
“I definitely spearhead [the cooking],” Archino said, “but the guys are great.”
They help him cut and peel ingredients — and sometimes they give him inspiration.
“Sometimes on Instagram, they’ll send me recipes, and they’re like, ‘Hey, can you make this?’ And then I’ll try working that into one of the meals,” he told The Record.
But in the end, Archino has the final word: “I have a way. I like to run things in my kitchen.”
Once it’s time to eat, Archino and his fellow firefighters sit down to talk about the day and the calls they had. “It’s a good time to reconnect and go over everything, you know, share some laughs,” he said.
The Locust Avenue firehouse indeed feels like a home. The kitchen has overflowing countertops and a big wooden table; the living room is stacked with lounge chairs and a TV; and the back of the station is reserved for bedrooms so the firefighters can rest while on duty.
And of course, bright red fire trucks sit glistening at the entrance, with gym equipment right behind them. Archino giggled when showing the dummies scattered around the gym equipment — one was slouched over a chair, as if it was tired from working out.
For an adult stepping into a firehouse, whatever joy one feels as a child after a firefighter lets them sit on the front seat of a fire truck apparently comes back with surprising fortitude.
Contributed photo
Photo Christian Falcone
From the firehouse, Archino led the way to his real estate office, only a couple of steps away. One coworker mentioned with affection an email Archino had sent out to all the staff earlier in the week, warning them about the upcoming snowstorm:
“Just wanted to tell everyone to drive safe and be careful tomorrow morning,” it read.
Whether in firefighter gear or corporate business casual, Archino keeps a watchful eye over his community. “It’s the place I’ve grown up in, I’ve built my careers in — it’s brought me to my fiancé,” Archino said of Rye.
Archino does not let his time in firefighting and real estate overlap. But he finds that both are rooted in similar principles.
“You know, in both, you’re serving a community, and in one situation, you’re protecting people and property, and in the other, you’re just helping them find a place to call home, get their lives set up,” he said.
But sometimes, Archino can’t help that one aspect of his life bleeds into the other. As he showed around the real estate office, a pair of black streaks revealed themselves on each leg of his beige chinos — marks of the tires of the fire trucks.
