Hyattsville Life & Times | November 2021
Henry McDonnell, chair of its chemistry department, helped start the College Park Volunteer Fire Department, in 1925. In 1930, the university, in partnership with the Maryland State Firemen’s Association, established what is now known as the Maryland Fire Rescue Institute to train firefighters from all over the state. Trainees encounter real fires in a smokestreaked burn building on Campus Drive in College Park, just east of Route 1. Two more innovations elevated the PGFD to a national mecca for fire education. In the 1950s, UMD created the nation’s leading undergraduate and graduate program in fire protection engineering (FPE). There are still just two others: the University of Worcester in Massachusetts, and Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Ca. However, only UMD can offer its students extensive firefighting experience because the Worcester and San Luis Obispo fire departments don’t take volunteers. Under longtime FPE department chairman Dr. John L. Bryan, the program pioneered the concept of the sackroom (or bunkroom) in which student volunteers live at local firehouses full time in return for free training, room and board. Livein students from out of state qualify for in-state tuition. The idea caught on and spread to many local firehouses, bringing the county a continuous flow of some of the nation’s best-educated volunteers. They, in turn, carry their training into other departments, industries and careers. Jeremy Jordan, who is the current president of the Branchville Volunteer Fire Department (BVFD), joined the BVFD while
THE SUN IS SLANTING BUT ROWERS ARE STILL ROWING
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he was at UMD, majoring in criminal justice. He is impressed by the caliber of volunteers at his firehouse: “Several Branchville volunteers have gone on to become doctors. We’ve been particularly successful in recruiting women pre-meds and public health majors,” he noted. “They feel that having real world experience as an EMT gives them an advantage in getting into graduate school.” Kevin King, HVFD president, said student volunteers “tend to be smart, fit and enjoy living in a group.” Hyattsville Fire Chief Ryan Pidgeon pointed to drawbacks, though: “The downside is that they take about a year to get fully trained and graduate a few years later,” he said. “However, we’ve learned to plan, train and recruit around that four-year cycle.” But just because someone has graduated doesn’t mean they’ve left the firehouse family or the profession. Jessica Doermann earned a master’s in FPE from UMD in 2019 and currently works for a large engineering firm in New York City. “When I was 21, during my first ride-along with Hyattsville, we went to an active fire in Brentwood,” she said. “Honestly, it was the most exciting thing I’d ever done in my life, and I got trained as a volunteer as soon as I could. When I come home to visit my parents, I ride with HVFD
as often as I can. Back in New York, I feel it gives me a real career advantage. Every single construction project involves some level of fire engineering. Most engineers have never personally experienced how fire moves through a building, but I’ve smelled the smoke and felt the heat.” Don’t miss part 2 in this series, which will explore the complexity of managing Prince George’s County Fire Department’s career and volunteer members.
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