Zealot in the Heavens: Believers on the Ground II: Friendship Fire Company, Harpers Ferry, WV

It is late spring 2004, and the weather is beautiful in Jefferson County. The pollen count soars above 1,600, and the cicadas are just beginning their onslaught on the apple blossoms and many of the other blossoms so much in evidence at the northernmost extension of the Shenandoah Valley. The firehouse is situated a mile, as the crow flies, from the juncture of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers. Washington Street traces a steep hill that terminates in the National Historic Park. Many of the surrounding houses could be the subject of historic theme parks themselves. If the firehouse, the neighboring post office and the convenience store a bit further up the hill are modern, then little else is reminiscent of anything after 1850. History is in the air. History is a local industry that contributes to property values and fuels a national park and some upscale tourist shops frequented by some Americans and even more Europeans in summertime. Why not?

Amtrak and the local commuter line make stops at the much-storied, albeit at times misshapen, train station that sits at the foot of the hill, fairly near the rapids of a tireless river. There is a main road a half-mile east of the firehouse that goes up to Charles Town (900 feet in less than two-thirds of a mile). It goes down across bridges, or shall we say causeways, that take you to Maryland if the rivers are not flooding the valley areas or the snow and ice haven’t combined to make the road impassable.

What an interesting place to do fire-EMS! Daunting? Certainly! Impossible? Not unless the flight of people from greater DC into the burgeoning housing developments gets worse than it is at present. But for a paid paramedic on call, the fire-EMS organization here is wholly volunteer. Less than three dozen cross-trained men and women do it all with pagers, sleep-in assignments and the occasional contributions of logistical support from non-riding people as well. They have a tank truck, a super pumper, two response ambulances, one transport ambulance and some older engines. The building is spotless. The turnout gear, both fire (yellow) and EMS (orange), is hung and in good order. Equipment includes that used for cutting and removing trees. Storms are a serious business. Getting to a call may well mean cutting your way through trees blocking access roads. It is a turn of mind. During a hurricane, three members of a sleep-in crew were ever ready to serve. They did not sleep in crew quarters, but slept instead on the floor next to their engine—a short set of steps from being in motion and away to the rescue.

With 30 or so folks like that, what more could you want? You might wish heavy rescue and high-angle rescue mutual aid units were closer than 40 minutes away in Frederick, MD. If staffing permitted, a boat for river rescue would be nice. Rapids and drowning kayak enthusiasts are not unknown to the area. If there were a way to ensure appropriate water pressure as more and more luxury suburban hideaways came online in the immediate area, then the folks at Friendship would be more than happy to have it. If employers would allow locally employed firefighters and EMT-Bs time to respond to calls in the daytime, that would be a blessing too. The scale of things is small, but not too small. The company responds to real calls—300 and more each year, and almost half are for emergency care. There are enough volunteers to do the job, for now.

The jobs are just like other EMS jobs anywhere in the country at times. Burn patients or kids lost in house fires disturb the crew members who deal with them. Child- or spousal-abuse calls can also be troubling. The company has a CISD team at the ready if things get to be too much to handle at some point in a member’s fire-EMS career. Friendship is part of a loosely knit EMS community in Jefferson County. EMS training comes to them via West Virginia, and there are awards dinners for those who cotton to such things. Mutual aid with the Charles Town EMS and fire organizations is a given. Some degree of mutual aid is supplied by caregivers from the artsy college town of Shepherdstown as well.

But it wouldn’t be hard to see the company orienting toward neighboring states. The two rivers form the confluence of West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland right on the figurative doorstep of Harpers Ferry. Affluent and well-funded Loudon County, VA, can and does help. The four major emergency care providers are less than a half-hour away in Hagerstown (Washington County), MD. Hagerstown plans disaster responses for the entire tri-state region and plans for the evacuation of WMD victims into the area in the event of a WMD episode in DC, Baltimore or both. Friendship is situated in a small, historic town, but it is clearly subject to the cross-fertilization provided by caregivers in other states. Harpers Ferry has had a history of being a crossroads. It also has a place in American history that is uniquely its own. It is a place that Friendship shares in openly.

No Sour Apple Tree Here

Some say the Civil War began here. Confederate folks made up a song about how they would “hang John Brown’s body from a sour apple tree.” A crazed, and perhaps too religious, man tried to arm slaves and launch a revolt here. He and his retinue took over the federal armory in Harpers Ferry to get the guns needed for the revolution. Robert E. Lee, then a colonel in the American army, put an end to it, and John Brown was hung in the county seat later on. But Harpers Ferry remained a bit different from its southern neighbors. A small Yankee hospital operated there, while the Rebels had a much bigger one at Shepherdstown circa 1863. The town was the home of an atypical college called Storer University during the Roaring 20s and the Great Depression of the 20th Century.

History matters in this part of the world! A line officer took me out to see the new ambulance. It bears a new logo that came into being as the direct result of a contest in which drawings and sketches were submitted. The winner exuded Harpers Ferry with each creative stroke.

Central to the logo is a picture of John Brown’s 19th century fort, which was the town’s first fire station. (The real one is at the foot of the hill.) Crossed rifles from the Civil War era are found on either side. A light blue cloud hovers in the sky, watching over the fort below. John Brown’s face is clearly discernible in the cloud. Got to wonder if the cloud might exist somehow in real life and whether it helps these unflappable folks keep on keeping on.