Six University of New Haven students are finding that their living situation this year isn’t conducive to sleep — at least on some nights.
That’s because they’re living in the Allingtown Firehouse and every time there is a fire or emergency call, they respond.
“Living here has reinforced my dream of being a professional in the fire service,” says Scott P. McGuire, president of the UNH EMS Club and the liaison officer between the Allingtown Volunteer Fire Association (AVFA) and the university. McGuire, who is from North Attleboro, Massachusetts. where he is a volunteer firefighter, is a senior studying fire/arson investigation and fire administration.
McGuire says he was interested in living at the firehouse because of the real-world experience it would provide. “My interest increased exponentially when I met the career staff of the City of West Haven Fire Department and some of the members of the volunteer department.”
“The relationships I have developed with the other volunteers and with the career personnel are invaluable. The advice and the help they give to me will stay with me for the rest of my life,” he says. “It helps me strive to ‘live the dream,’ as we say in the fire service world.”
John Carew, chief of the AVFA, says the relationship between the fire association and UNH has been long-standing and has gotten stronger and stronger over the years. While West Haven has both paid and volunteer firefighters, AVFA responded to nearly 500 calls in 2011, he says.
“The advantages to Allingtown of having students living in the firehouse are that it provides a more secure building and especially that the students become members of the AVFA and provide help and support for the career firefighters,” he says.
Edward R. Ball, a UNH master’s of public administration student who received a B.S. in fire/arson investigation and municipal fire administration from UNH last May, serves as a lieutenant in the Allingtown Volunteer Fire Association and an instructor in the service’s emergency care and safety institute.
The six students living in the firehouse and the more than 25 UNH students who are volunteer firefighters supplement West Haven’s manpower, he says.
Since there are only five paid firefighters per shift in Allingtown, Ball, who is from Bloomingdale, New Jersey, says the students can make a real difference during an emergency. “We’re in the shadows with the career guys, and it is an amazing experience.”
The six living in the firehouse pay a yearly fee to live there which goes to the Allingtown Volunteer Fire Association to purchase gear and maintain equipment used by the volunteer firefighters, Ball says. They live like career firefighters with a bunkroom, dayroom and kitchen.
“We are doing this for the experience,” Ball says. “Most of us come from small rural areas with few fire/emergency calls. Allingtown gets a lot of calls a year and it is a unique opportunity to learn.”
The University of New Haven is a private, top-tier comprehensive institution recognized as a national leader in experiential education. Founded in 1920 on the campus of Yale University in cooperation with Northeastern University, UNH moved to its current West Haven campus in 1960. The University provides its students with a unique combination of a solid liberal arts education and real-world, hands-on career and research opportunities. UNH enrolls approximately 6,400 students, including nearly 1,800 graduate students and more than 4,600 undergraduates — the majority of whom reside in University housing. Through its College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, Tagliatela College of Engineering, and College of Lifelong & eLearning, UNH offers 75 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. UNH students have access to more than 50 study abroad programs worldwide and its student-athletes compete in 16 varsity sports in the NCAA Division II’s highly competitive Northeast-10 Conference.
