LEWISTON – Reginald Poirier strapped on a yellow helmet and fought fires for seven months alongside Lewiston’s firefighters.

Now that the Navy corpsman is in Iraq, attached to a Marine Corps unit in Fallujah, his buddies from the Lewiston department wanted to make sure he’s still wearing a good helmet. In June, they spent $200 from their union dues to buy an upgrade for his helmet – a kit of specially designed pads aimed at protecting his head from the concussion of an explosion.

“I feel safer,” Poirier said in a phone interview Monday from the Fallujah base. “I installed it the day it arrived. It works well. I’ve heard stories.”

He has talked with Marines who have worn the upgrades through attacks by roadside bombs, he said. They believe the pads gave them added protection.

That the kit came from the firefighters back home – men he was just beginning to know – only added to the gift. Though it arrived weeks ago, he learned it was from the guys on Monday.

“It’s great,” said Poirier. “If I’d known, I would have called them the day it arrived.”

To his co-workers at home, the gift was a matter of making sure Poirier had needed equipment, something every firefighter understands.

“Here, you know what you have what you need,” said Rick Cailler, president of Lewiston Local 785 of the International Association of Firefighters. “This was for one of our own.”

They learned about the helmet upgrades from their national union. It sent along a flier about a charity named “Operation Helmet.”

The nonprofit organization was founded by a retired Navy flight surgeon, Dr. Bob Meaders. The Texas doctor began it in March 2004 by helping his grandson purchase the upgrade kit from a private manufacturer.

Then, he started collecting donations to cover the cost of the kits: $71 for Marines and $99 for the Navy and Air Force.

The all-volunteer group has since sent about 20,000 kits to Iraq. They also have a list of more than 3,300 soldiers, who are waiting for the upgrades.

Cailler said he took the Operation Helmet flyer to the other members. Though $99 would upgrade his helmet, the union’s executive committee sent $200.

The charity managed to send five kits to Poirier, which arrived with an “Operation Helmet” tag and no note. The firefighter gave the other four away, three to Marines and one to another Navy corpsman.

“They were easy to install and easy to clean, which is important here,” Poirier said.

The petty officer second class has been fighting the heat and dust of Iraq since his arrival in March with the Marines’ 125th Alpha Company.

His job is supplying preventive medicine for both U.S. and Iraqi soldiers.

However, Poirier said his goal is returning home, to his family in Leeds and the fire department.

“I want to get back to my wife and kids,” he said. “And I want to get back to work.”

His wife, Dawn Shorette, and sons Dustin, 16, and Kyle, 13, will be waiting.

So will the department.

“We didn’t get to know him that well, yet,” Cailler said.

Poirier, 38, joined the department last May and was activated by the Navy in December.

As a new guy in the department, he was shuttled between the department’s stations, filling in for veteran firefighters as they were out sick or on vacation. When he returns, his job will be waiting.

“He loves NASCAR and firefighting,” said his wife, Dawn. “Being a firefighter is his dream job.”

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