To Protect --and Serve

It was business as usual recently at the newly opened Firehouse Pub & Grub in Silverado Canyon, where real-life firefighters serve beer and burgers to the locals. Then the inevitable happened.

A chorus of pagers filled the restaurant, sounding an alert to an emergency somewhere in the canyon.

As burgers continued to fry, those firemen on duty sprinted for the door while others remained to toil away.

“Some of us were so busy, we didn’t realize [pagers had sounded] until later,” said Janet Malyzka, a volunteer firefighter for Silverado station No. 14. “This is the first time I’ve been a waitress.”

Located about a mile from the entrance to Silverado Canyon, the Firehouse interior is filled with fire station memorabilia and inside jokes. The kitchen door bears the sign: “Warning--Fire Hazard.”

More than half the restaurant’s staff are on-call firefighters who work for free as bartenders and waiters. Even the dishwashers are in the Orange County Fire Authority youth Explorers program. Others are Silverado residents who respond to fire and traffic emergencies in the canyon for $7 per call.

The close-knit group is anxious to assist Colleen Reilly, who as a Silverado Canyon resident and part-time firefighter is a friend and “part of the firefighting family,” said Malyzka.

“We know our neighbors,” said David Barrow, a Fullerton fireman who lives next door to Reilly and tends bar at the restaurant. “She borrows my car, I borrow her truck when I need to pick something up.”

Getting the restaurant in shape was a little like a barn-raising, with firefighters and friends pitching in for some jobs and contractors doing the rest.

Formerly in the printing trade, Reilly joined the local fire squad 3 1/2 years ago as a way to contribute to “community spirit,” she said.

Shortly after training, she was called into one of the largest firestorms in Orange County history, the 1993 blazes that consumed huge portions of Laguna Beach and wilderness land east of San Juan Capistrano.

The fire team will occasionally assist on fires in other communities, but most of their work is to provide emergency assistance on traffic accidents, said Reilly, 35, who has lived in Silverado Canyon for 16 years.

“It’s very much a family thing,” she said. “We work together on calls, we work here at the restaurant. We’re a very tight group.”

Even though the calls are slow compared to “down the hill”--a canyon dweller’s term for where city folk live--firefighters know they are likely to be helping a familiar face when the emergency unit rolls.

In 1994, Malyzka responded to a call just a block from her home, only to discover her son was one of three local youths hit by a drunk motorist.

Her son and another teenager survived with minor injuries but 19-year-old Jasmin Cook died from the accident. The driver, Silverado resident Shane Young, 27, was sentenced in February to 15 years to life for second-degree murder.

“It’s hard, because you do know most everyone here,” said Malyzka. “But you have to keep a detachment when you’re doing your job.”

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In April, after holding a thank-you barbecue for all her friends who pitched in to renovate the restaurant, Reilly opened the doors. Part of the restaurant’s allure is its location, about 15 miles from the nearest outposts of civilization, such as a 7-Eleven convenience store.

Reilly said business has been “OK,” but she expects more customers to walk through the door during the summer months, when Silverado Canyon gets more visitors.

Locals say they appreciate having a neighborhood pub, and Reilly has already begun promoting the restaurant by co-sponsoring a match between the Silverado Canyon Golf team and a squad of golfers in neighboring Modjeska Canyon.

In the meantime, with the help of her firefighter friends, she expects the restaurant to survive and thrive.

“What I’m really looking forward to,” she said, “is the day when I can put everybody on the clock.”