Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

The Nickel: A Look Inside Georgetown’s Engine Five

ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA
ALEXANDER BROWN/THE HOYA

Among Georgetown’s brightly colored townhouses, two red doors stand out: the entrance to the Nickel, or Engine Five of the D.C. Fire Department. Bearing the DCFD crest, only a few blocks from the front gates at 3412 Dent Place, the Nickel feels removed from the Georgetown community — an aura maintained by its firefighters.
Though the men and women of the Nickel work within walking distance of the university, few students know who is behind Engine Five.
Inside the Nickel, the smell of diesel fuel and cooking remnants waft through the garage, and collections of turnout gear lie in wait for the firefighters’ next run. The automated dispatching system chirps out assignments to various parts of the city in a voice reminiscent of Apple’s Siri.

Pictures of past fires — grainy stills of red and orange billowing from windows, ladders suspended in the air with jets of water gushing forth — adorn the walls of the firehouse. Men in helmets and soot smile back at visitors, moments of victory caught in fading Technicolor.

Years before these photos were taken, the group that would become Engine Five was manned by horses and men on M Street. Then called Truck E, the unit moved to Dent Place in the 1940s, when it became Truck Five, then Engine Five.

The Nickel gets its name from the busiest firehouse in the District: Engine 10, known to firefighters as the Dime.

“So we’re the Nickel,” Lieutenant Cory Goetz explained.

With an average of five calls per day, Engine Five is significantly less busy than other District stations.

“It’s like a retirement home for firefighters,” said Ricardo Kingsbury, who has been a firefighter since 1993.

Seven firefighters staff the engine, and a mixture of paramedics and EMTs form the ambulance crew that operates from the firehouse. Engine Five acts as first response for medical calls in the immediate area, not just fire-related emergencies — the norm for all engine companies in the District, which employs a system that brings together firefighters and medical personnel.

When a crew is on duty, they staff at the firehouse for 24 hours straight.

“We’re a unit,” Goetz said. “We eat and sleep together, travel together. We’re all tight.”

——————————————–

Though the Nickel is more a part of the surrounding community than campus, its mascot pays tribute to Georgetown. In the engine’s logo, a bulldog wears a dark blue collar with “The Nickel” stenciled in bold black type.

“We go to Georgetown a lot,” Adrian “Stokey” Stokes, a veteran Nickel firefighter, said. “Usually it’s at 2 in the morning, and there’s a lot of alcohol and vomit involved.”

In calls that involve the Georgetown University Emergency Response Medical Service, the firefighters see students in a more positive light.

“They’re really eager,” Stokes said of the GERMS responders. “But I think they should be allowed to come outside the university and get a real taste of what it’s like.”

“We have a very effective, great working relationship with D.C. Fire and EMS and enormously value their service to our community, said Kate McCLellan (COL ’14), director of public relations for GERMS. “We work together on a regular basis with Engine 5, as their close proximity to campus means that they are often the first unit to respond when we need additional resources.”

Stokes’ first taste of that lifestyle came in 1990 when, as a rookie firefighter, he was sent to the busiest firehouse in the city: Engine 10, Ladder 13, also known as the Dime.

“It was an eye-opener,” Stokes said. “At first I thought it was a lot of hype, even throughout training.”

On Stokes’ first day on the job, he ended his shift, which included three fires, with a medical call for a man who had been shot in the head sitting in the front seat of his car.

“Because I’m the rookie, they say, ‘Hey, go check the guy out,’” Stokes said. “I’m shaking him, asking, ‘You OK?’ and then I see his brains hanging out. I remember when I got home, my girlfriend at the time, now my ex-wife, asks, ‘How was it?’ And I told her, ‘Hey, it’s for real.’”

After eight years at Engine 10 and three years on another assignment, Stokes came to Engine Five, battered by a career in firefighting.

“If you’re doing the job right, you’re going to get hurt,” Stokes said. “Been burnt on my hands, my knees, my face. … You will get broke up, you will get scars.”

——————————————–

For firefighters, these scars are not always physical. The job takes its toll on the crew’s personal lives, too.

Stokes said that more than half of all fire and police personnel nationally have been divorced during their time on the job. Both Stokes and Goetz are divorced and have grown children.

“A lot of the guys say it’s because of the hours, but do you know what I think it is? I think we have that attitude, that kind of fearless edgy, attitude and we end up looking for that in women,” Stokes said. “It’s an adrenaline thing. You run into a burning building, and you end up wanting that off the job.”

Stokes, who has been dating the same woman for the last four years, is now considering marriage again.

Goetz lives with a woman in Pennsylvania and commutes 90 miles to work once a week.

This commute is possible because each crew is usually required to work only one 24-hour shift a week, giving firefighters a lot of time off between days at the Nickel.

To fill this gap, many firefighters work side jobs. Goetz worked construction for a stretch, while Stokes found himself in the carpeting business for the last 12 years, hanging up his hat only recently.

The side jobs supplement a salary that hasn’t seen a raise since October 2006. According to The Washington Post, the starting salary for a firefighter in the District is $44,302 per year, a wage that can increase to over $65,000 if a firefighter contributes 20 years of service.

While other big-city departments like the Fire Department of New York have seen sizable increases over the years, with two 4 percent raises between 2008 and 2010 for FDNY firefighters, the DCFD base salary has gone unchanged.

Any public dissent among firefighters regarding pay is grounds for termination by the department, in accordance with a contract the firefighter’s union has with the city.

“We’re not complaining — we’re glad to be employed,” Stokes said. “We’ve been due to get something the last seven years.”

“After 9/11, we were rock stars, but times change,” Goetz added.

——————————————–

Goetz remembers Sept. 11, 2001, clearly. With a different engine at the time, Goetz was dispatched to prepare for a strike against the White House that never came, due to the heroic efforts of the passengers of United Flight 93, who crashed their flight in a field in Stony Creek, Penn., before it reached the capital.

“The city was empty, dead, not a soul on the streets. No vehicles, nothing, just Humvees driving around. It was like martial law,” Goetz said.

Less infamous days of horror have left impressions the firefighters, too.

“We had a call Dec. 22, 1995. Two-floor row house fire, just blowing … and they come out with two little girls. Five or six years old, same size as my daughters, and they just hand me one of the girls because the ambulances aren’t there yet,” Goetz said. “You’re told never to do mouth-to-mouth, but I did mouth-to-mouth on this little girl and that screwed with me a little bit. I can still remember tasting the soot.”

“Kids are tough,” he added. “It never gets easy.”

When faced with scenes like these, Stokes said firefighters compartmentalize their experiences. Because the most gruesome incidents will generally happen only once a year, firefighters have enough time to decompress and deal with the trauma.

“Pulling a few bodies here and there, it’s so spaced out, you grab them and their skin is sliding off their arms, and, yeah, as time goes on you remember, but you don’t hold on to it,” Stokes said.

——————————————–

The tones go off and Engine 5 jumps to life. A pedestrian has been struck down near M Street and might have life-threatening injuries. The diesel roars and the garage doors go up to reveal the crisp fall air outside.

Firefighter Ricardo Kingsbury watches as Engine 5 pulls down the street, sirens wailing.
Kingsbury has worked for the fire department most of his life

“The thing I notice about here, we’re more appreciated up here,” Kingsbury said, motioning to Georgetown’s row of townhouses.

“I enjoy this job, I enjoy helping people,” he said. “If I had to work for someone the rest of my life, this is what I’d do.”

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Hoya Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *