Tucker Lazare credits the Vashon fire department with saving his life as a baby, and after volunteering there for the last 10 months — tending to islanders facing their own emergencies — he is moving on, having earned a coveted spot with the Seattle Fire Department.

While Seattle Fire has been deemed “harder than Harvard” to get into — and hires just over 1 percent of those who test for it — members of Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) say Seattle made a good choice with Lazare.

“He has been a great contributor to our organization,” said VIFR’s Jason Everett, who served as Lazare’s captain for the past seven months. “He learns very quickly; he is extremely positive and is always willing to do whatever it takes to do the job and learn.”

Lazare, who grew up on the island and graduated from Vashon High School in 2010, is quick to credit his success to the island men and women who trained him.

“I do not feel like this is mine,” he said. “Everyone has done so much for me. I feel like the people who should be celebrating are the people who got me here.”

That path began 20 years ago when his parents, Gail Labinski and Kim Lazare, took him to a fire house in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle. He sat in Engine 9 — a memory that has remained over the years.

“That’s when I knew I was going to be a firefighter,” he said.

Ten years later, as a freshman at Vashon High School, his mother suggested he join VIFR’s Explorer program, which teaches firefighting and emergency medicine skills to teens. He recalls the first day he attended.

“I was really nervous,” he said, “but I felt like I was meant to be there.”

He climbed the ranks in the group, ending as a captain with two lieutenants under him. Along the way, he said, he learned a great deal about the field and earned community service hours necessary for graduation at the same time.

“It has come from that to this family I am sad to leave, but am proud to represent in my future,” he said.

After high school, Lazare attended Bellevue Community College in the fire science/officer program, thriving in his fire classes, but not interested in the others. He left school before completing the program and held a variety of jobs, he said, from teaching skiing to working at Nordstrom. He grew to miss learning, he added, and became a student at North Seattle College, taking only classes he was passionate about and realizing how much he missed the fire service. He enrolled at the school’s highly regarded emergency medical technician program and became an EMT a little more than year ago.

“My grades were totally different — I was there for myself,” he said. “I knew I was there to succeed.”

After school, he began working for a private ambulance company, but said he missed the fire service and applied to VIFR as a volunteer.

“Vashon, that would be the place I would dream to work,” he said he thought at the time.

He went through the hiring process, including an oral board interview with people that knew him when he was younger.

“They gave me a chance, and I have cherished the opportunity not only to serve the community but to work in the department. It has been a real treat for me,” he said. “Everyone is extremely dedicated to excellence and serving the community. I just have so much gratitude it is hard to express.”

The road to becoming a professional firefighter can be extremely long. Everett said he believes, on average, it takes three to five years to be hired by the fire service, but for some, it takes much longer. Lazare, who was hired on his first attempt, said he is well aware that some people test many times to get hired, particularly by Seattle, and that he was prepared to work for a decade on Vashon, living on the modest stipend of a resident volunteer.

“I know I am an anomaly, and I feel immensely fortunate and grateful,” he said.

Lazare completed his shifts with VIFR last week and will begin with the Seattle Fire Department Aug. 10.

For Lazare, leaving VIFR, including the people who shaped his life as a teen and those who helped him to prepare for the rigorous hiring process in Seattle, is bittersweet. He noted that in the fire service there is an expression, “The best fire department to work for is the one that hires you.” But he disagreed.

“The best fire department to work for is the one that gives you the opportunity to serve those who helped you,” he said.

Vashon Island Fire & Rescue welcomes volunteers and new members of the Explorer program. For more information, see vifr.org or all the department at 463-2405.