Our membership includes high school, college, graduate, and medical students, attorneys, nurses, economists, consultants, physicians, a professional dog trainer (it’s true!), scientists, military officers and enlisted personnel, automotive technicians, and people in many other fields.

Chat with any of our members, and you’ll probably hear some common themes:

• There are some sacrifices and some commitment required to be a volunteer, but they are far outweighed by the enormous rewards from helping others in their time of need — this gets reinforced with every card or letter we receive from someone who’s grateful for the assistance our personnel have provided and the kindness our personnel have shown
• There are wonderful, interesting people at Glen Echo Fire Department, and the atmosphere is not only professional, but also fun and welcoming — we take great pride in thinking of ourselves as a family and as having a “firehouse” rather than a “fire station”
• Glen Echo isn’t the kind of firehouse where people come to escape boredom or just hang out — when our volunteers walk through the door, they do so with a sense of purpose, which might include “paying it forward” through service to others, gaining experience, or even just finishing their chemistry homework between calls

Some of our more senior members will tell you that they started as volunteers thinking they would just stick with it for a couple years, only to find that their experience at Glen Echo was something they were unwilling to leave behind. GEFD volunteers who’ve moved as far away as Florida, Utah, and Poland still come back several times a year to be at the firehouse and to run calls, and they Skype in to our membership meetings.

And several of our volunteers — some of whom will tell you they never would have dreamed of becoming health care professionals — have found their calling while members of the department and have subsequently gone on to medical school or become physician’s assistants.

We are the most convenient volunteer firehouse to American University and Georgetown University, and many of our members are Eagles or Hoyas.

We’re located right on several bus lines and are less than a mile from where Massachusetts Avenue intersects the Capital Crescent Trail (a paved bike path linking Georgetown, downtown Bethesda, and other locations), so it’s easy to get to us.  See our contact page for more details.

And just to clarify, you do not need to live in or be a resident of Montgomery County to volunteer at Glen Echo Fire Department; many of our volunteers come from other counties in Maryland, from Virginia, or elsewhere.  We are less than 2 miles from the Maryland-DC line, and that makes us an especially popular option for people living in Washington who want to volunteer but cannot because the District of Columbia Fire and EMS system does not offer volunteer opportunities.

No experience is required for any of our positions. If you have the will to go through training and to commit to serving the community on a regular basis for at least two years, then we are thrilled to have you join our family.