“When a person is on duty here, or anywhere, to me they are saying, ‘No matter what time, no matter what situation, I promise that if you call us, we will come for you. Be it a simple accident or one of the worst moments of your life. I will be there as quick as I can and I’ll do everything I can for you while I take you to where you can be truly helped.’ It means a lot to me to be a part of something so simply admirable.”
–Melissa Crowley-Buck, EMT
Starting into his sophomore year, Michael Duncan ’82 was looking for something to do with his spare time. His roommate and Kappa Sigma brother, Jeff Cooke ’81, had joined the Granville Township Fire Department the year before and invited him down to the station. It wasn’t long before Duncan was hooked on the sense of duty, the action, the camaraderie. To him, the reason for sticking with it was quite simple: “It just gets in your blood.” He explored some other career options after graduation, but it wasn’t long before he was a full-time member of the Westerville (Ohio) Fire Department, where he works today. As a Granville resident, he serves as a part-time inspector on the local squad because, he says, “if I have the ability to do something, why not pitch in for my own community?”
Emergency medical technician Melissa Crowley-Buck ’10 joined the department with the same motives. A political science major from Boston, she has her sights set on international relations and human rights, but she feels that civic commitment starts at home—and at college. Brandon Reece ’04 had similar sentiments, but they ended up being life-changing for him; he’s now one of the seven full-time squad members. For Oakland, California, native Dan Kindell ’09, joining the force seemed like a smart complement to his pre-med studies. Kindell has since switched his major to athletic training, but he stayed with the force and got his firefighting certification because—you guessed it— “it just gets in your blood.”
The GTFD has been seeping into Denisonian veins since its formation in 1885. As the story goes around the firehouse, conveniently located on Prospect Street at the foot of Denison’s hill, students and professors made up the bulk of the initial force, and untold numbers have since reported for duty, including the six students and three college employees currently volunteering. The college has ponied up for plenty of gear as well, including the department’s very first pump wagon and two ladder trucks—which makes sense since Denison owns the tallest buildings in the township.
A student volunteer typically puts in up to 20 hours a week and one all-nighter every sixth day (no big deal for a collegian), and while they occasionally encounter grave situations, they rarely feel in danger, thanks to hours and hours of training. On the other hand, as Crowley-Buck explains, they do gain a new perspective on safety, whether it’s from attending to a house fire or a fatal car accident, transporting to the hospital a fellow student who has over-imbibed, or finding a burning candle in her residence hall. “It’s really changed my awareness of so many things,” she says. And to Chief Jeff Hussey and the rest of the department, it’s a big relief having eyes with that focus up on the hill and bodies with that ability down at the station.