Located in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department provides primary fire and emergency medical services to the City of Hyattsville, the majority (85% to 90%) of the Town of University Park, and several surrounding unincorporated areas including University Hills and the Prince George's Plaza area.

The HVFD's ladder truck is a 1996 Pierce Lance 100' Tillered Aerial that seats 8 personnel. The entire HVFD Fleet is Pierce, with the exception of the ambulance. Photo by Geoff Donahue

    Hyattsville has a combination volunteer and career fire department with approximately 60 active volunteer members and 10 career personnel at present. Volunteer officers and members receive no compensation. Career personnel are employees of Prince George's County who provides their salaries and benefits. The department is headed operationally by a volunteer chief, Donald Moltrup, who has served as fire chief for the past 26 years. "Doc" is also the Volunteer Deputy Chief of the Prince George's County Fire/EMS Department, making him one of the highest ranking volunteers is America. Administratively, the department is run by a president, Jonathan Ransom, who has served in that position for 11 of the past 13 years. He is a former President of the Prince George's County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. The ranking career officer in the station is a Captain.

    The Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department operates two Class A Pumpers (a 1988 and 1990 Pierce Arrow 1250gpm), an Aerial Ladder Truck, a Basic Life Support Ambulance, a Heavy-Duty Rescue Squad/Metro Support and Mass Casualty Unit, and four support vehicles from the fire house located at Queens Chapel and Belcrest Roads. All current apparatus was purchased new since 1988. We recently placed two new units in service: a new 100' Pierce tillered ladder truck which we purchased at a cost approximately $600,000 and a Ford Lifeline ambulance which cost $105,000. All current department apparatus is owned by this department and was purchased primarily with funds raised by the department through donations and fundraisers.

    Volunteer membership is available to citizens at least 16 years of age who are willing to donate their time and talents to helping the community. Membership categories are available for those who wish to pursue firefighting and emergency medical service (EMS) activities, EMS only, and for those who wise to help with administrative and fund raising activities of the department. Applicants for membership must undergo a background check and physical exam provided by the County before acceptance.

    All active members are expected to be at the station for at least one duty shift (night or weekend period) per week. Each duty shift is headed by a volunteer officer. Twelve of our members are live-ins who are provided living accommodations in return for their services. Each live in is expected to sleep in at the station at least four nights per week. Most of the live ins are students at the University of Maryland or Montgomery College, both of which have fire service related programs.

A mural on the wall of the HVFD, painted during its 100th Anniversary in 1988, depicts a broad spectrum of the history of the department and firefighting images.

    Our current career staffing normally provides four personnel during the day on weekdays (0700-1500) and two personnel after 1500 and on weekends. We often have no career staffing on holidays although this is generally a negotiable factor with the County Fire/EMS Department.

1998 At the HVFD

1998 was both a trying and exciting year at the Hyattsville VFD. In June 1998, one of our members, Jeff Shaw was seriously burned battling a house fire, but has made what doctors call a miraculous re covery and returned to duty in early Winter. Our Open House during Fire Prevention Week brought more than 2,000 people from the community to the fire station. We moved all administrative offices to the nearby city administration building and extensive, ne eded rennovations took place to improve the quality of our aging station, which we continue to look for replacement funds for. Our membership continues to grow to about 60 active members, including 15 live-in members.

If you are interested in learning more about the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department, please visit our web site at http://www.hvfd.com