April 16, 2016 – On March 9, 1921, 51 men gathered to discuss the establishment of a volunteer fire department. The meeting was called following a devastating fire at a store that could have spread to the entire town center if not for the assistance provided by the District of Columbia Fire Department. Representatives from the group met with Rockville’s mayor and council who approved the plans to organize the department. Over the next two years, this group, along with other members of the community raised money to purchase a fire engine and further organize the department. The new Rockville Volunteer Fire Department was incorporated in December 1923.
RVFD members celebrated this significant milestone, along with visiting firefighters from the Freiwillige Feuerwehr Pinneberg in Germany (volunteer fire brigade) (Pinneberg is a Rockville Sister City) at an event held at the Bolger Center in Potomac. Along with the anniversary celebration, awards were presented to members for their own milestones or achievements attained in 2015.
In 1991, Uwe Kuhlmann, the chief of the Pinneberg fire department, contacted Jack Ferguson, then the chief of RVFD and proposed an exchange of visits, as Rockville and Pinneberg were sister cities. The RVFD voted in May 1991 to officially establish a relationship. A group of Rockville members visited Pinneberg in May 1992 and a group of Pinneberg members visited Rockville in October 1992, thus formalizing a relationship that is now 25 years old. At the event, current Pinneberg Brandmeister (Chief) Claus Köster spoke about the importance of the relationship and presented a large plaque to commemorate the occasion.
RVFD members achieving milestones or receiving awards were:
Length of Service Awards:
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During 2015, RVFD members contributed to their community by standing by at the station for a total of 119,366 hours. In addition to their weekly standby requirements, some members live at the station. The members with the most standby hours divided between live-in members and non-live-in members in 2015 were:
Live-In Members
| Rob Foley – 2575 hours, Sean Ferrary – 2502, Thomas Huntington – 2192, Brittany Dawson – 2038, Charles Ogles – 1877 |
Non-Live-In Members | Scott Emmons – 2648, Christopher Hinde – 2276, Alain Pankopf – 1973, Ethan Simon – 1834, Eric Klein – 1732 |
One of the many, and the most important, things our members do while spending all that time at the station is to respond on emergency calls. In 2015, there were 12, 396 unit responses from RVFD Station 3. The top five call runners in each category are:
Live-In Members | Derek Winikoff – 624 responses, Robert Foley – 475, Scott Cushing/Brittany Dawson – 373, Brianna Seymour – 294, Charles Ogles – 289 |
Non-Live-In Members | Sander Cohen – 410, Alex Cederbaum – 386, Christopher Hinde – 331, Alain Pankopf – 329, Scott Emmons – 321 |
The Shift Member of the Year award is nominated by each duty shift officer and awarded to the shift member who has contributed above and beyond expectations to the shift’s operations. This year’s recipients of the Shift Member of the Year awards are:
Monday Night Shift Maggie Sandoval
Tuesday Night Shift Ross Davis
Wednesday Night Shift Derek Winikoff
Thursday Night Shift Christopher Hinde
Friday Night Shift James Cruzan
Sunday Night Shift Mateo Wolf
Weekend Daytime Shift John Lee
Career Shift Brian Rojitas
The other awards presented were:
Probationer of the Year – Eric Klein
Officer of the Year – Deputy Chief Craig Lazar
EMS Member of the Year – Brenda Mannix
Firefighter of the Year – Scott Cushing
Fire Chief’s Award – Alex Cederbaum
Special Fire Chief’s Recognition -Lori Rieckelman, Staff Therapist with the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service
President’s Award – Danielle Thomas
Distinguished Service Award – The Department’s highest honor – Peggy Miller
