Alpha Fire Company was founded in 1899, and has since serviced five townships, as well as the Penn State campus. Rob Nese has been a firefighter for several years, and is one of the few paid administrators for the company, who also lives in one of the dorms inside of the fire station. Ever since he was young, he has wanted to be a firefighter, and his childhood dream was recognized, being able to work among some of his closest friends while saving lives on a daily basis.
Alpha Fire Company doesn’t just serve the community with fires and emergencies. They regularly engage with the people in town and the surrounding counties, with close to 6,000 visiting annually. Whether it is a group of students coming for fire safety lessons, or just to take a tour around the firehouse, Alpha Fire Company helps out in anyway they can.
Some of the trucks that Alpha Fire Company uses can range from anywhere between $650,000 to $1.2 million, which each of their 19 vehicles having their own capabilities. An individual firefighter, when carrying the full 30 pounds of equipment into an emergency, can be wearing up to $13,000 per person.
Volunteers, though difficult to come by, are given the opportunity to work for benefits that could heavily assist students. Of the three stations around State College, there are 13 volunteers who live inside of the station without having to pay rent. This option is available as long as they devote 30 hours a week to the company. Even with this opportunity, there are roughly 20-30 students volunteered to the station at any one time. It takes roughly three months of training to become a firefighter, with nearly 300 hours of classes required before beginning, as well as an 18 month probationary period.
Recently, numbers have been down in terms of volunteers. Since 1976, numbers have dropped 80%, seeing a significant opening for help opening up. 2015 showed numbers of only 38,000 firefighters in Pennsylvania, down significantly from 300,000 over 40 years ago. Even with the dwindling numbers, those who have stuck around and continued to risk their lives have created a bond with one another that has extended beyond just working together.
While it is never easy to answer the call when it comes, Rob Nese has stated numerous times that the best part of working for the company is the fact that he gets to spend so much time with the people he trusts.
“I feel a lot safer knowing that these guys have my back.â€
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