Lynbrook Twins Born Prematurely Train To Become Volunteer Firefighters

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An amazing story has shown how life comes full circle. Twin boys born prematurely saw their lives saved by volunteer firefighters.

Now, the twins have become firefighters working side by side with the heroes who kept them alive 18-years-ago.

As CBS2's Emily Smith explained, Luke and Jake Bavaro often do the same things, including their decision to become volunteer firefighters together in their hometown of Lynbrook.

It's a life choice that was spurred by a front page story from 1998.

"The pager went off for an infant not breathing," EMT Joe Rice recalled.

Rice and Lynbrook firefighter Patrick Curran were pictured together holding the twins. Their mother had just called 911 after Luke stopped breathing. The two first responders were only a block away. Rice picked up Luke and saw that he had turned purple.

"I lifted his jaw slightly and started stimulating his leg and his feet with my fingers trying to get him to breathe," Rice said.

Suddenly, Luke started breathing. Incredibly, the twins only recently met their saviors after signing on as volunteers.

"they don't consider themselves heroes, but I do because they saved my life and my brother's," Luke said.

Twin brother Jake pointed out that both infants were placed on ventilators at home.

"Since we were both premature babies, we were always stopping breathing, numerous times they responded to our house whenever there were power outages," Jake said.

Now, the men who saved their lives are the ones training the twins in their new profession.

"They've taken time out of their days at two in the morning, when they're sleeping, coming to my house to resuscitate one of us," Jake said.

"I think it's fantastic. I think it's the circle of life. Everything went full circle and Lynbrook is very lucky to have them," Curran said.

Jake and Luke still have another year of training to go through, but they're already out answering calls hoping to save lives under the tutelage of the men who saved theirs.

The pair are true volunteers, receiving no payment while they pursue degrees at Molloy College.