Riverside County Volunteer Firefighters

Dedicated to dangerous work

So. Md. firefighters show there's much more to the job than putting out flames, saving lives

Friday, March 25, 2011

Every day, hundreds of men and women in Southern Maryland risk their lives for those in their community.
 

These dedicated men and women do so not for recognition or pay but because it's something they enjoy doing.

They make up the county's fire departments, which are all unpaid in Southern Maryland — many are career firefighters who donate their off time to the local fire departments where they got their start.

Some have had family members or mentors in the field who they watched while growing up.

And others, like Jonathan Riffe, chief at the Huntingtown Volunteer Fire Department Company 6, and career fireman in Washington, D.C., find the excitement of the job enticing as he recalled watching "the thrill and adrenaline of the fire trucks going up and down the road," and watching firefighters on TV as they would run in when everyone else is running out of a building.

Willie Wilkerson, president of the Southern Maryland Volunteer Firemen's Association, said there are between 3,000 and 3,500 volunteers in Southern Maryland who make up the 40 departments within the association.

Wilkerson runs with the Mechanicsville Volunteer Fire Department, he said, adding that their audit reveals around a $550,000 savings for the Mechanicsville station alone, not including other stations in St. Mary's County.

He estimated about $22 an hour saved for each hour the volunteer puts out.

Duane Svites, Charles County volunteer fire chief, said that there are about 1,100 volunteers in the county who qualify for the tax credit, which requires 50 points — 50 calls, or 40 calls and 10 points from other activities such as training and attending meetings.

There are also volunteers who maybe just joined or contribute a little here and there, he said, adding that those are not included in the figure.

He estimated that the county saves between $40 million and $55 million a year, adding that Charles County is very similar to Prince William County in size and makeup and their budget is between $50 million and $60 million a year, whereas Charles County has a budget of $10 million. Stanley Williams, emergency services coordinator for St. Mary's County, estimated 1,700 volunteers between fire and EMS in St. Mary's; however, he was unable to provide a figure on the amount saved by the county.

"It would have to be in the millions," he said.

‘Joy of saving a life'

While the thrill of the job was what got Riffe, 30, started, "it's the joy of saving a life and helping people in their dire time of need" that has kept him there.

There have been times when people are thought to be dead on the arrival and "we bring them back," he said. "We meet them months later and it's a great feeling. … It's like we're their angels. We brought them back to life."

When he was 16, he filled out the application at the Huntingtown station and has been there ever since. He started off as a probationary firefighter with no formal education and progressed through the ranks.

At the time, he really didn't know too many people, he said, but it was a "great place to hang out, keeps you out of trouble and you meet new people from all different" walks of life.

Calvert County pays for volunteers to go to college, Riffe said, adding that he got an associate's degree from the College of Southern Maryland in fire science and a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland University College, also in fire science — although it's not required — and "never paid for a dime."

"It's a tremendous privilege that everybody should take advantage of," he said. The only requirement is that volunteers fill the basic member requirements — each year, members must run 96 calls, attend six meetings and six drills and perform 36 collateral duties. Drills take place once a week and offer "hands-on practical work" in fire training, rescue training or EMS.

For the District, he works one 24-hour shift and then has 72 hours off, therefore working about eight days a month, he said. And, every day that he's not working, he's at Huntingtown. Sometimes he even sleeps there, he added.

"We have 11 people that live here. This is their actual home," he said, and the rooms have cable TV and telephone. "It's an extra added incentive that we use to entice people to stay overnight here."

Besides running drills during downtime, they also train quite a bit, he said. It's a real family environment.

"We eat dinner together, cook meals together," he said.

As Riffe put it, being a firefighter is "extremely stressful," he said, "not only physically and mentally but also on your family as it requires long hours."

The job "takes a tremendous amount of dedication. The guys that are volunteers here, they don't get paid to be here. They get nothing at all to be here, except the privilege of helping out their fellow citizens. I don't know anything that you can do in your life that's a better call. These guys risk their life every day for their fellow citizens."

‘A dream come true'

Unlike Riffe, Waldorf resident Ben Jenkins, 26, grew up watching his father as a fireman in Fairfax, Va.

Jenkins, also a career firefighter in Fairfax, volunteers at Waldorf Station 3.

He is the only kid in his family who followed in his father's footsteps.

"It just seemed like a really awesome career to be involved in," Jenkins said, adding that the "lifestyle seemed pretty interesting — going to the firehouse, and even though you're at work, you still get to hang out and have fun with your workmates and just enjoy helping people."

He started volunteering in 2001 and became a career firefighter in 2006.

After he graduated from high school, he worked as a 911 dispatcher for the Prince George's County Fire Department.

Although he liked his job as a dispatcher, it required sitting inside for 12-hour shifts and was "kind of boring," he said. "I'd rather be outside and involved in emergency operations and not just sitting in a room telling people where to go."

When he got hired to as a fireman in Fairfax, "It was a dream come true," he said. "It was exciting to start a new career, one that I will be able to work for quite a while and hopefully retire from."

At the Waldorf station, the majority are career firefighters somewhere else, he said. "With our work schedule, it gives us the opportunity to be off during the day when the volunteer system needs us the most," he said. For example, in one recent week he worked Thursday, Saturday and Monday and was off Friday, Sunday and then Tuesday through Friday before starting again on Saturday.

"Most of those who are professional firefighters continue to volunteer because that's where most of us got our start," he said. "You're able to volunteer at 16, but most don't hire career firemen until 18 or 21, so I think there's a sense of loyalty to the fire department where you start your career, whether that's volunteer or professional."

Jenkins said he also thinks it's important "to pay them back for all the effort that the other members put into molding you into a firefighter and getting that experience, which I'm able to use in my professional career as well."

In Charles County, volunteers are able to take advantage of tuition reimbursement as long as they major in fire science or something public safety- or EMS-related and pass the classes, he said, adding that he took advantage of the program and thinks it is great.

Jenkins said that "the job as a whole is just amazing. There's not many places where you can go to work, either drive or ride on an almost million-dollar piece of apparatus and get to use it to help others and hang out with really cool people on the way and make some really good friends."

‘I hit the lottery'

Although Shawn Downs, 28, of California, had many family members in the fire and EMS community, it's not the reason he joined.

Downs was searching for something extra to occupy his time on top of sports and academics when he was 16. So he joined the Bay District Volunteer Fire Department, in California. By the time he was 17, he moved into the firehouse and has been involved ever since.

"As a 17-year-old, it was interesting to say the least," Downs said. "You were definitely the junior man and tasked with just about everything. It was a learning experience second to none. There's no better way to learn than actually getting out there and doing it."

He learned pretty quickly that there was a lot more to the job than just riding on fire trucks, he said; however, that didn't stop him. Within two years, he was an officer and now he's the assistant chief.

"It's kind of been a wild ride over the past 12 years," he said.

After he graduated from high school, Downs decided it was time to pick a path in life and applied to several different jurisdictions.

"I hit the lottery when D.C. was the first one that actually worked out. That's what I was aiming for since I was a junior in high school," he said, adding that the experience was "kind of like when an athlete goes to college and gets drafted to a pro team that he always wanted to play for."

Downs said that his father grew up in the District, which is why he chose that area to work in.

"Getting hired in D.C. was great," he said. "I love serving the citizens up there, but this is still home and as long as I can do it here, I'm going to continue … here as well."

He works 42 hours a week, or eight days a month, in the District. When he's not working, he's the assistant chief at Bay District, which he said is like a full-time job managing the day-to-day operations of both of the stations, all of the apparatus, manpower and personnel, which can prove to be quite a load, juggling job, home, three kids and everything else, he said.

Downs said there are about 25 career guys between the two stations who work for Prince George's County, Loudon County, Anne Arundel County, Naval District Washington and the District, like himself. There are also about 20 active-duty military firefighters, he said, pointing out that the numbers have dropped since the '80s and '90s.

When his men aren't on calls, it's a lot of training, he said, adding that there's a lot of time put into keeping the equipment and apparatus clean.

"My guys know that I cannot stand a dirty $500,000 fire truck," Downs said. "Ultimately, it's not ours, it's the taxpayers'. It's our job to keep it up and running, clean and neat. … We don't have time to make sure everything is working when that bell rings."

Between the two stations, there are 21 live-ins, he said.

"When the bell sounds, within 60 seconds, we have at least one apparatus leaving the doors of each station," he said. "That's parallel to any paid organization."

When asked how his family handles it, he said that his wife met him at the firehouse and was aware of what she getting into.

"It was a mutual understanding," said Downs, a father of three boys. "Her father was a cop. It's kind of like being a fireman, where their jobs mean a lot to them and their families mean a lot to them. There's definitely times where you have to get up from the dinner table or miss something, but you have to find that delicate balance to do it all."

Each year, he tells himself he's going to slow down a bit and every year, "I kind of sign again on the dotted line," he said. "The big thing that keeps me doing it is the young guys here. Being able to share with them the knowledge that I've gained through the years — from Bay District, the city, and the various classes and seminars I've attended. Being able to share that with them and helping them grow and learn and watch them be productive on the fire ground and assisting people when they need it, that's what keeps me coming back."

spoynor@somdnews.com