Volunteer Fire Companies

The Woodlawn Volunteer Fire Company has a problem.Its fire station is so cramped that the most serious injury to a firefighter in recent memory took place not at a fire, but in the men's dorm during an alarm. A volunteer sleeping on the top bunk accidentally jumped on his bunk mate below and dislocated the man's shoulder."The bell rings, everybody gets up, and BOOM!" said Capt. Jimmy Artis.The close quarters of the 27-year-old building on Woodlawn Avenue affect more than the firefighters' comfort.

A volunteer firefighter who joined the Reisterstown Volunteer Fire Company as a teenager more than a decade ago died Thursday of injuries sustained in a fire last week that also killed another man. Gene Kirchner, 25, died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center, officials said. "Everybody is extremely shocked by this," said Craig Hewitt, assistant chief of the fire company. "They're missing Gene right now. He was a very key part of our fire company, and he will be greatly missed. " Kirchner was one of the first firefighters to respond to the house fire on Hanover Road early on the morning of April 24. He tried to save a man trapped inside, officials said.

VOLUNTEER FIRE companies in Carroll County have reluctantly recognized the economic realities of providing critical ambulance services to the community. Next month, the association of 14 volunteer units is expected to approve a countywide plan to bill insurers for these emergency services. The county commissioners will create a paid liaison to improve government coordination with independent fire companies.It is another step toward paid staffing of vital emergency services, one that an all-volunteer corps can no longer provide.

The Fallston Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Company says it has been selected to receive a $278,711 federal grant that will be used to replace its firefighters' self-contained breathing apparatus. The fire company announced Sunday it had been notified by the office of U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski it will receive a Federal Emergency Management Agency Assistance to Firefighters Grant. "This grant will be utilized to replace 40 Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA) used by our responders," the fire company said in a news release.

A Carroll volunteer fire company is pushing for a change in the law that would give it and other volunteer fire departments in the county more chances to sell raffle tickets and bolster their budgets. Officials in the Gamber and Community Volunteer Fire Company propose amending a provision in state law that limits Carroll fire departments to holding one raffle per year with a prize worth $2,500 or more, or five raffles with prizes worth less than $2,500. Because raffles and other fund-raisers are crucial to the survival of volunteer fire companies and to the ability to buy much-needed equipment, the departments should not be restricted to one large raffle a year, said Jeannie Green, a volunteer with the 135-member Gamber organization who is working on a proposal to present to the county's General Assembly delegation.

Editor: One of our members lost everything when lightning struck the family home while they were on vacation in late August. We quickly put together a fund raiser at the fire house and these local businesses came through in a large way. The Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company would like to express our sincere gratitude to Papa John's and Pizza Hut, both in the Edgewood area, for their generous contributions to the fund raiser. We cannot thank them enough for their help. We would also like to thank the local community and the other volunteer fire companies who made contributions of clothing, gift cards and money so that one of our members could begin rebuilding.

A fire in Joppa Monday evening resulted in $1.5 million in losses and the destruction of a home and 13 vehicles, fire investigators said. Just before 6:30 p.m. Monday, units from Joppa-Magnolia, Bel Air, Abingdon and Fallston volunteer fire companies and Aberdeen Proving Ground Fire Department in Harford County, as well as the Long Green and Kingsville volunteer fire companies in Baltimore County responded to a house fire in the 2400 block of...

Hours after a legion of volunteer firefighters drowned a smoldering giant mulch pile fire in Joppa last month, Richard Godfrey was out surveying the damage on his property.He walked over the rain-sodden fields, picking up discarded cups and plates from the ponds and roadside, cast off by those who had doggedly fought the smoldering mountain of chips that had burst into a seven-alarm emergency on a windy, drizzly Saturday night.The 32-hour fight against a 40-foot pile of wood chips engaged more than 200 firefighters from five counties, mobilizing 56 fire trucks and a squad of large Public Works Department bulldozers.

A SMOLDERING dispute over volunteer fire companies billing patients for ambulance service continues to flare.The Reese fire company reversed itself this month and voted not to bill for its emergency ambulance services. That's after lengthy, arduous debate among Carroll volunteer companies, resulting in an accord that all would bill for ambulance by July 1 this year. (Some have been sending bills to patients for some time.)Volunteer fire companies will bill all patients, but not dun nonpayers, expecting that private insurance policies and Medicare will pay bills for their insured persons.

Anne Arundel County's Fire Department would get a new name, the fire administrator would get a new title and his authority over volunteer firefighters would be carefully spelled out in a proposed charter amendment that has been submitted to the County Council.Instead of the traditional "Fire Department," the county will have a Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Medical Services if voters approved the amendment in November. And Fire Administrator Stephen D. Halford will be addressed as "chief" under the proposed changes.

Deputy state fire marshals identified the victim of Thursday's fatal fire near Havre de Grace as George M. Scott, 86, who lived in the home in the Webster Village neighborhood where the fire occurred. An autopsy by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner was completed Friday and determined the cause of Mr. Scott's death was smoke inhalation and thermal injuries, according to a news release from the Fire Marshal's Office. Mr. Scott was the sole occupant of the home at the time of the fire, according to the release.

Several of Harford County's volunteer fire companies will have their doors open wider than usual this weekend to welcome anyone who is interested to stop by for a visit, check out the equipment and maybe even learn something about fire safety. October is Fire Safety Month, and this past weekend the Level Volunteer Fire Company kicked off the public safety open house season in style. The event featured a demonstration on how to put out a vehicle fire, featuring a real burning vehicle, not to mention some more tame hands on activities for children.

The Kingsville Volunteer Fire Company will use a $3.6 million loan from theU.S. Department of AgricultureRural Development program to expand and renovate its facility in northern Baltimore County. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin announced the funding Thursday. The company, which serves a predominantly rural area, will use the money to update outdated mechanical and electrical systems, replace the deteriorating roof and increase living and classroom facilities for its volunteers.

William B. Levin, a longtime member of the Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company and senior claims adjuster at the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, died Friday in hospice care at the Gilchrest Center of kidney cancer. He was 65 and had battled cancer for several years. Members of the Pikesville company held a birthday party for him April 25 in the chapel at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. They awarded him a life membership, recognizing his 24 years of service with the volunteer company.

A fire in Joppa Monday evening resulted in $1.5 million in losses and the destruction of a home and 13 vehicles, fire investigators said. Just before 6:30 p.m. Monday, units from Joppa-Magnolia, Bel Air, Abingdon and Fallston volunteer fire companies and Aberdeen Proving Ground Fire Department in Harford County, as well as the Long Green and Kingsville volunteer fire companies in Baltimore County responded to a house fire in the 2400 block of...

The Pikesville Volunteer Fire Company invites the public to an open house from noon to 4 p.m. at the fire station on Sunday, Oct. 23, when the company will dedicate its new heavy rescue squad truck. The Pikesville fire station is located at 40 E. Sudbrook Lane, in Pikesville. The dedication and open house are part of the company's observance of National Fire Prevention Month. Citizens who come to the open house will have the opportunity to meet volunteer firefighters and emergency medical providers, take a tour of the firehouse and watch an auto extrication demonstration.

Maybe it was the banners advertising a hair-growth medicine hanging around the Hyatt Regency ballroom, or the fact that most of the 600 people there were men. But testosterone filled the air for the third annual "Fight" to Save-A-Heart boxing event. The mostly masculine mob was served a three-course dinner, followed by four bouts of boxing in a ring set up in the middle of the room. Among the fight fans: Mitchell Paige, Save-A-Heart president; Jeff Pritzker, past president; Morry Zolet, Save-A-Heart board chair; Marla Shuman, Ira K. Himmel and Sam Winik, board trustees; Marty Schwartz, president of Precision Tune Auto Care; Tom Paullin, executive director, Union Memorial Hospital Foundation; Chuck McGeehan, ESPN sportswriter; Steve Rouse, WQSR radio morning man; Darric Boyd, Legg Mason financial adviser; Eric Becker, chairman of Sterling Capital Ltd.; Steve Adelsberg and Elio Casalena, sales leaders for Tom James Co. clothier; and Dr. Jeff Quartner, Sinai Hospital director of cardiology.

A Carroll volunteer fire company is pushing for a change in the law that would give it and other volunteer fire departments in the county more chances to sell raffle tickets and bolster their budgets. Officials in the Gamber and Community Volunteer Fire Company propose amending a provision in state law that limits Carroll fire departments to holding one raffle per year with a prize worth $2,500 or more, or five raffles with prizes worth less than $2,500. Because raffles and other fund-raisers are crucial to the survival of volunteer fire companies and to the ability to buy much-needed equipment, the departments should not be restricted to one large raffle a year, said Jeannie Green, a volunteer with the 135-member Gamber organization who is working on a proposal to present to the county's General Assembly delegation.

Editor: One of our members lost everything when lightning struck the family home while they were on vacation in late August. We quickly put together a fund raiser at the fire house and these local businesses came through in a large way. The Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company would like to express our sincere gratitude to Papa John's and Pizza Hut, both in the Edgewood area, for their generous contributions to the fund raiser. We cannot thank them enough for their help. We would also like to thank the local community and the other volunteer fire companies who made contributions of clothing, gift cards and money so that one of our members could begin rebuilding.

Paul D. "Denny" Owings, a retired Black & Decker Corp. manager and volunteer firefighter, died May 14 of heart failure at his home in New Bern, N.C. The former Lutherville resident was 66. Mr. Owings was born in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville. He was a 1962 graduate of Towson Catholic High School and earned a degree in industrial management from the University of Baltimore in 1969. Mr. Owings, who retired from Black & Decker in 2005 as a manager of engineering projects, had worked for the toolmaker at plants in Fayetteville, N.C., and Towson during his 42-year career.