Most students can drive a car by the time they graduate from college. Not many of them can drive a fire truck<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Gregory \u201923 is among the few. An agricultural sciences major, Gregory has been a volunteer firefighter throughout his time on the Hill (and for two years before that, as a high schooler in New York\u2019s Westchester County). Now a junior, he has risen to the rank of lieutenant with the Cayuga Heights Fire Department (CHFD), the all-volunteer force that serves the tree-lined village adjacent to campus that\u2019s home to many Cornell faculty and staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s definitely exhilarating,\u201d Gregory says of extinguishing fires and aiding in other kinds of emergencies. \u201cIt\u2019s great to be able to make a positive difference in someone\u2019s life. As firefighters, we like to respond to fires; that’s why we do it. But we also know that, on the other end, it\u2019s probably the worst day of someone’s life. So we do the best we can to help them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For decades, Cornell undergrads and grad students (not to mention faculty and staff) have been serving as volunteer firefighters with local departments, Cayuga Heights included. Until about 15 years ago, when the Ithaca Fire Department went all-professional, some joined the city\u2019s force as \u201cbunkers\u201d\u2014volunteers who receive room and board in exchange for their service\u2014in Collegetown\u2019s former Fire Station Number 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, while some students volunteer with other departments in Tompkins County, Cayuga Heights hosts the largest and most active group of Cornellian firefighters. It has its own bunker program; Gregory is one of eight currently living in the spacious, modern firehouse, located near the village\u2019s bustling Community Corners intersection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe’re really good friends, and we hang out a lot,\u201d says fellow bunker Kirsten Scheller \u201921, a master\u2019s student in biomedical engineering who joined CHFD the spring of her freshman year and became an EMT last summer. \u201cAlso, we get to be on the first truck that goes to a lot of these calls, so we get a lot more experience and can be more involved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to CHFD chief George Tamborelle, the department responds to some 600 calls annually, roughly 60% of them medical emergencies\u2014a reason why some students aiming for med school, and seeking real-world experience, are attracted to volunteer. Other calls can involve car accidents, downed power lines, carbon monoxide alerts\u2014and, of course, fires, though Tamborelle notes that major structure fires are relatively rare in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the community\u2019s academic bent, CHFD recruits twice a year, during fall and spring semesters. The job requires extensive training according to state and national guidelines, as members progress from probationary status to become \u201cexterior\u201d firefighters\u2014meaning they\u2019re qualified to fight fires from the outside only\u2014and then \u201cinterior\u201d ones; some go on to advance through the officer ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The student volunteers are a tight-knit group, and\u2014with an eye toward recruitment, retention, and morale\u2014Tamborelle has aimed to make the firehouse an attractive place for them to congregate, relax, and do homework, with amenities like a fitness center and robust wi-fi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen they don\u2019t have class, they can come to the station\u2014so there\u2019s always somebody around who can go on calls,\u201d says Tamborelle, who met his wife (pediatrician and former CHFD volunteer Lindsay Russell Tamborelle \u201907) through serving in the department. \u201cI don’t know if that dynamic would work for other fire departments, but it works for us. Why study in Mann Library when you can study at the fire station?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, more than two dozen Cornell students serve with CHFD, comprising about 70% of the department\u2019s volunteers. And while firefighting has long been a predominantly male profession, the Big Red contingent is decidedly egalitarian: just over half are female. They include master\u2019s of engineering student Grace Ding \u201921, a member of Navy ROTC and former varsity fencer who\u2019s slated to complete her degree this month (December 2021) before beginning military service as a submariner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the training you go through as an interior firefighter, you learn how to keep calm in really stressful situations; that has been useful,\u201d says Ding, whose younger brother, Andrew Ding \u201924, is also a CHFD volunteer. \u201cAnd the Navy does a lot of training that’s similar to general firefighting, so I’ll definitely have an edge up on that and know more than my peers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since fire departments in Tompkins County routinely provide mutual aid across municipal lines, CHFD often responds to incidents outside the village. Some of the more dramatic blazes it has helped battle in recent years include the fire that destroyed Lower Collegetown\u2019s beloved Chapter House in 2015 and, more recently, one that consumed the Plantation Bar & Grill (a popular hangout on Route 366 in the Town of Ithaca) this past June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the training you go through as an interior firefighter, you learn how to keep calm in really stressful situations.<\/p>Grace Ding \u201921<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n For civil engineering major Titus Pierce \u201923, the Plantation fire\u2014which, like the Chapter House blaze, resulted in a total loss of the property but no deaths or major injuries\u2014was his first. \u201cThere was a lot of adrenaline, but I also learned a lot,\u201d recalls Pierce, who spent more than six hours at the scene, including working on a hose line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s it like to control a fire hose going full blast? Gregory compares it to \u201ca football player pushing against you with a constant force; it takes a lot of energy to hold it in place, much less move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the Cornellian CHFD alumni are several who\u2019ve gone on to careers as professional firefighters\u2014including Andrew Magenheim \u201905, a lieutenant with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), currently serving with Ladder 26 in Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Magenheim, like Gregory, began volunteering as a high schooler; he passed the FDNY\u2019s written and physical tests in 2002 while still an engineering student, influenced in part by the awful toll of the 9\/11 terror attacks, which occurred his freshman fall. After graduation, he spent two years in the engineering industry\u2014waiting for admittance to the fire academy, based on his test scores and other factors\u2014before joining the department in 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had a really good engineering job that I enjoyed, but it was not something I could see doing for 40 years; I needed to be out interacting with people, having something different happen every day,\u201d Magenheim observes. In the FDNY, he says, \u201cyou work with some of the greatest people in the world. The people who take this job are not just signing up for it; they all have a calling.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n CALS alum Jonathan Pique \u201999 also served in the FDNY after volunteering in Cayuga Heights. In fact, he spent six months as CHFD chief before moving to New York City, where his now-wife, fellow CHFD volunteer Allison Nowak Pique \u201902, was attending med school at Mt. Sinai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, Pique is the training captain at the fire department in Berkeley, California, his wife\u2019s hometown. \u201cI went into college never even having considered firefighting as a career,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd then I joined [CHFD] and just fell in love with it. I couldn’t believe you could actually do that for a living.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Magenheim and Pique both note that being an Ivy Leaguer in general (and a Cornellian in particular) isn\u2019t as much of a rarity in the FDNY as one might imagine; Magenheim even recalls once serving on a fire truck whose crew also included a psychology major from Columbia and a chemical engineer from Penn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cComing from Cornell, I had a solid base in critical thinking and in learning how to learn\u2014and I think those were key in making me successful,\u201d says Pique, who was assigned to Engine 53 in Manhattan, serving for four and a half years before relocating to California. \u201cThere were 252 people in my academy class, and I came in number three academically, and that\u2019s one of the reasons I ended up in a really good [fire] house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another fellow CHFD alum\u2014David Wolf, PhD \u201911\u2014made the rare leap from veteran volunteer to professional chief in a single step. Wolf began firefighting as a freshman at Pennsylvania\u2019s Allegheny College and joined the Cayuga Heights department as a doctoral student in geology on the Hill. He eventually became an assistant chief at CHFD before graduating and moving to Houston, Texas, for a job as a research scientist with an international oil company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coming from Cornell, I had a solid base in critical thinking and in learning how to learn.<\/p>Berkeley, CA, fire captain Jonathan Pique \u201999 <\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Houston\u2019s fire department is a hybrid of professionals and volunteers, and Wolf rose to become an officer and run its training program. After six years in the oil industry, he decided to pursue firefighting full time; since 2016, he\u2019s been chief in the Rocky Mountain resort town of Estes Park, Colorado. His experience in Cayuga Heights has served him well in his current job, overseeing a department of seven pros and 40 volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI got to see a side of my community as a volunteer firefighter that I never would have as strictly a graduate student or an undergraduate,\u201d Wolf observes. \u201cEvery college town jokes about the locals and the students. If you want to bridge that gap, volunteer for the fire department.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Top image: Kirsten Scheller dons her helmet outside the CHFD station. (Photo by Ryan Young \/ Cornell University)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Published December 8, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n For decades, the volunteer fire department in the Village of Cayuga Heights has relied on Cornellians to staff its ranks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":4589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-4587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/2021_1252_RY_007-1024x576.jpg\")
First responders<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/2021_1252_RY_013-1024x576.jpg\")
An essential role<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Going pro<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/2021_1252_RY_009-1024x576.jpg\")
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