Saving lives outside the Bubble

Noah Brown ’13, a premed molecular biology major from Iowa, said he has dreamed of becoming a firefighter since age five. However, he added, joining the Fire Department was a “modular process.”

“I did Fire One [training] to see if I had what it takes,” he said. “It was kind of to prove to myself that I could do it. Prove to my father, actually, that I could do it, because he didn’t think that I could.”

Princeton Fire Station No. 60 is composed of three companies named Hook and Ladder, Engine Company No. 1 and Mercer County Engine Company No. 3. It dates back to 1788 and is one of the oldest continually operating volunteer fire departments in the country.

Aspiring volunteer firefighters can complete their training at the Mercer County Academy during the school year or in their own states’ firefighter academies during the summer. Brown chose the latter route the summer after his freshman year and enrolled in a grueling condensed course that lasted 12 hours per day for two weeks, including weekends.

“The training was challenging, you know, because you do everything a firefighter does,” he explained. “You cut and vent roofs with chain saws, you do search and rescue missions in smoke and fire conditions, you do engine company operations, so — knocking fires down with hose lines, forcible entry.”

However, Brown said, the training was a worthwhile way to discover a new passion. “I ended up loving working with my hands because I am also a musician,” said Brown, who is a bassoonist in the Princeton University Orchestra. “Everything that you do [as a firefighter] — nozzles, search and rescue, rope — all the tools that you use are something that you have to have good hand-body-eye coordination for, and I really enjoyed practicing that. So I came back to Princeton really knowing that I would enjoy doing all those things and decided to join the department predominantly because I like thinking in high risk, high reward situations.”

History major Lucy Reeder ’12, whom Brown described as his best friend and the individual who most directly influenced his choice to join the department, is president of the recently founded Princeton Student Firefighter Association. Passionate about her work in the department as well as its rich traditions, she said, she hopes to increase student representation by recruiting at least two to five new graduate or undergraduate students this year.

“I think people think it’s more of a time commitment than it is,” Reeder said, citing what she believed to be the most common stumbling block to volunteering. “A lot of people aren’t used to volunteer fire departments; they are used to career fire departments, which are someone’s careers, so they are there all the time. So [students] picture that, which is not how we average at all.”

Firefighters are given a pager and can use an emergency car on campus to drive to their station before switching to one of the fire trucks. They have the freedom to respond to as few calls as one per week or as many as the typical one or two per day. Reeder also plays tuba and tambourines in the University Band and has not found balancing her schedule to be a problem. “During midterm week, I take fewer calls, while during normal weeks, I take more calls,” she explained. “I don’t think it’s any more of a time commitment than some of the dance groups.”

Reeder also mentioned that presumptions regarding how firefighters are “supposed to look” should not prevent interested individuals from volunteering.

“I don’t know among students, but among a lot of people there are a lot of girls who say they are too small or wouldn’t be able to handle [the tasks], which I think sometimes is probably true because it is a physically demanding activity.”

However, she added, “You can often be surprised at what you can do. I was surprised at what I could do, and you’re always working in teams and stuff like that. So I always tell people that should not be discouraged if they do not fit a typical firefighter look.”

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Often working in conjunction with the Fire Department is the Princeton First Aid and Rescue Squad, which Brown also joined after his freshman year following completion of a basic EMT training course that same summer.

“The First Aid and Rescue Squad has a culture that is focused on extensive training and reliability. When you’re in the medical field, you have to perform adequately on every call that you’re on, in order to make sure you give the best care possible to every patient, and the Squad does that very successfully,” he said.

Like the Fire Department, the Squad has a promotional system by which one first joins as a probationary member. Squad members are expected to earn their EMT certification, which takes 120 hours, and then go through “a more rigorous, detailed training” through first aid that familiarizes new members with the practices specific to Princeton. After their promotion, they become driver trainees and learn how to drive the ambulance. At that level, you are expected to be able to take care of any patient in any medical situation alone if you had to.

Alexa Fredston-Hermann ’12, an ecology and evolutionary biology major and Whitman College residential adviser with a certificate in environmental studies, shares Brown’s opinion of the Squad’s rigor and feels confident in her training. One of her fears, she said, was being thrown into a situation where she was supposed to be helping someone but didn’t understand how. “The promotional system trains you to the point where, by the time you get to promotion, you feel ready to take on that new responsibility,” she said.

Now an officer in the Squad, Fredston-Hermann said she first joined because she felt volunteering would ground her education in something real and immediately beneficial to others: “My biggest reservation about college in general was that it would be a very abstract education,” she said. “Volunteering is a very good counterpoint to that, because your problems are very immediate, solutions are very obvious and you can help in a really clear fashion.”

Although she does not plan to go into the medical profession, Fredston-Hermann said, she is passionate about health care. “I’ve been volunteering continuously since I was 11,” she said. “But there aren’t many things you can do for someone that are immediately useful than trying to save their life in a medical emergency.”

Daniel Barson ’12, a senior in the molecular biology department, explained that his experience as an EMT has allowed him to realize how rewarding a career in health care could be. “Coming into Princeton, I was interested in the pure research side of medicine, but now I am convinced that I want to treat patients and be a care provider,” he said.

Barson’s work with the Squad has also given him a greater appreciation of the Princeton community and town. “Seeing as I work with people who work in the town, I cooperate on a regular basis with the Princeton Township Police, the Princeton Borough and Public Safety,” he said. “I’ve met countless numbers of town and Borough residents, and I certainly have a personal investment in local politics and affairs that most Princeton students do not have.”

“It’s nice to have a working relationship with Public Safety and with the police force,” he added. “They really are there for our safety and have our best interests at heart. Some of my friends think, ‘Oh, Public Safety is out to get us,’ but this is not the case, in my experience.”

Fredston-Hermann and Brown said they have also enjoyed the friendships they have built through the Squad. “Most of my closest friends are on the First Aid Squad,” Fredston-Hermann said. “People join it for many different reasons, but it’s still a place where you can find a lot in common with the volunteers around you. It’s also a pretty intense experience, which I think often brings people together.”

“There are a lot of people to hang out with,” said Brown. “We often go to Winberie’s to have drinks together, have burgers. A lot of my friends are people on the Squad and in the fire station.”

The same trend occurs in the Fire Department. Reeder said she enjoys listening to the older firefighters share their stories and talking to people from “different walks of life.”

“I just think it’s nice to have a set of people that are different from the normal sets of people I hang out with,” she said. “[The firefighters] are just a really a great bunch of guys. After our meetings, we have hamburgers here [at Engine Co. #1] and sometimes sit and talk for hours.”

“We’ve become a really tight community because some of us have been through training together, and we usually respond together,” Reeder added. “[Our collection of volunteers] has been a really great group of people.”