Another Record Year For GWGVFD

(Gaithersburg) -- The Gaithersburg - Washington Grove Volunteer Fire Department is busier than ever. In 2001 the GWGVFD stations on Montgomery Village Avenue and Muncaster Mill Road answered 14,212 fire and emergency medical service calls. That's an increase of more than 19-percent in the department's call level since 1996, when 11,935 calls were answered.

Over the same five-year period county funding for the GWGVFD has remained level. Each year we are asked to do more with less, says Fire Department President Bud Henkel. That's why the support of our community is so important. The GWGVFD serves Gaithersburg, Montgomery Village, Washington Grove and Derwood, an area that continues to expand dramatically. Station 28, on Muncaster Mill Road, has also just been designated the County's second, satellite hazardous material's station. This will further increase the number of calls to which the GWGVFD must respond, says Henkel.

The GWGVFD has recently added a second, full-time ambulance at Station 8, on Montgomery Village Avenue, to help handle the large number of emergency medical calls at that station. It is also continuing to actively recruit volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians.