UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 36, Page 2
July 9, 1992
Volunteer says: He goes when the whistle blows

     The decision to get involved occurred in 1972, when Roger Bowman
came upon a serious automobile accident, was not able to render much
assistance and the man died a few minutes later.
     "That gave me the final push," he recalled, "to learn what would
be needed to help someone."
     Today, the grounds supervisor in plant operations can reflect on
a 20-year career as a veteran volunteer firefighter and more than 12
years as a licensed paramedic.
     His base of operations is Elkton's Singerly Fire Company, located
a short distance from his home near Fair Hill, in nearby Maryland.
     Bowman estimates that he responds to calls about 20 times a
month. They're a mixture of fire and ambulance requests. They can
occur anytime of the day and sometimes, if the request is serious
enough, he'll leave work to help his fellow volunteers.
     He's missed the last two Christmas mornings at home battling
industrial fires. And there was an emergency one New Year's Eve, and
another on Christmas Eve. But, "you've got to go when the whistle
blows," he said.
     Why?
     It's a tough question to answer, he said. It's a mixture of
wanting to help someone in need, Bowman said. If you stay in the
business long enough you're, in a way, responding to your own needs.
It's actually satisfying to be involved in controlling an emergency
situation.
     "Firefighting is a type of battle," he continued. "The people who
are trying to put the fire out are waging a war against the fire and,
hopefully, they are going to win."
     Bowman admits that volunteering can be stressful and a challenge
and can require a lot of time. "If you feel you have the desire and
interest, I'd say try it. You can't be any worse off from the
experience, and, if it's ok, it may help you later on."
     One of his most satisfying experiences was when a man in a
motorcycle accident he had helped came to Elkton months later, from
the Wilmington area, to thank him personally.
     "It makes you feel good," he said, "that all of the years of
training and sacrifice-the missed dinners and not being home on
Christmas morning- that they were all worth it."
     But, then there's the down side. "Probably the worst incident was
the loss of a family of four in a traffic accident a few years ago,"
recalled Bowman. "Their car was on fire, and the family was trapped
inside. There wasn't anything anybody could do. You realized they were
dead before we got the call, but you still feel the loss."
     The physical fatigue, scars and burns from fighting fires will
heal, you can rest and get over them, explained Bowman. "It's the
psychological effects which may be worse. They're always in your
thoughts. You learn to deal with them.
     "This has given me a different perspective on life. When you see
people live and when you see people die, you begin to see things
people consider to be of a major issue. But, in the big scheme of
things, when you relate them to life and death, they really aren't
that important. You develop a different outlook on just how important
living is."
                                        -Ed Okonowicz