Briarcliff Manor Fire Captain Wins Big on 'Millionaire'

Thanks in part to his knowledge of 80s hip-hop, Snooki and English grammar, Briarcliff Manor's Pete Flihan is $63,600 richer.

Flihan, captain of the 's Hook & Ladder Company, was chosen to be a contestant from a studio audience of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire during the American Pride Week.

The episode aired last Monday.

"About 10 of us went down to the taping to be in the audience," said the 22-year village resident in an email. "We had heard that they might be selecting contestants from the audience, but weren't sure. When we got there, the shows producers interviewed every single person in the audience. I guess that I was just extremely lucky."

Alongside his fellow volunteers from the Scarborough Engine Company, Briarcliff Fire Company and Volunteer Ambulance Corps, "Wow! I hope that I represent the volunteer fire service well," was the first thought Flihan experienced when he was chosen.

"Seriously, it wasn't about the money," he added.

Rather, the 47-year-old father of two told host Meredith Vieira becoming a firefighter was "the greatest choice I ever made and I wish I’d done it years ago.”

Flihan added in an email to Patch that he joined the department in 2004 after his friend Bill Joynes urged him to give it a try.

"Firefighting...cuts across all boundaries: financial, religious, age, gender, race, nationality, whatever," he explained. "It is one of the few volunteer pursuits that asks you to care about all your neighbors, not just the ones who might be more reflective of yourself."

While training to become a volunteer firefighter takes a lot of work, performing well on the show was all about the luck of the draw, Flihan said.

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On just the second ($10,000) question, Flihan had to use his "Ask the Audience" lifeline.

The question was: "On the sitcom “Seinfeld,” which character said to his girlfriend, 'I'll tell you a little secret about ZIP codes: they're meaningless?'"

He also stumbled on question five, which asked which restaurant the character Penny works at in the television show The Big Bang Therory—ultimately choosing the "Jump the Question."

"All my friends could answer the question about The Big Bang Theory," Flihan said. "But since I didn't watch that show, it was impossible for me."

He did, however, know the title of Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi's first book (A Shore Thing), that the Roomba was inducted into the Carnegie Mellon Robot Hall of Fame and Zodiac sign for a July 4 birthday (Cancer).

Flihan decided to walk away in the game show's second round $100,000 question—"What is the official name of the police officer depicted on the “Go To Jail” square in the board game Monopoly?"

"I realized right away that I didn't know the answer," he explained. "I also knew that I would never have this opportunity again, and I had to maximize it. But, when it all came down to it, I was happy with what I had, rather than risk it for what I didn't know."

His decision earned him the entire bank he accumulated so far—$63,600.

"I am taking my family to our favorite place: Walt Disney World," Flihan said. "It will be a trip to remember."

Since the taping, Flihan's daughter Emma has also been accepted at New York University.

"I am so happy to use the rest of my winnings to make the first year of that dream come true as well," he said.

The Millionaire experience was made memorable not only by his winnings, but by host Vieria ("just as warm and open-hearted as she appears to be on TV") and the crew's efforts to thank all of the volunteers, teachers and military personnel who made up the audience, Flihan said.

"Even though I didn't win a million, I felt like I had by the time I left."

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