A sign hangs over the bar at The Nines broadcasting the fact that the restaurant and bar was originally an old fire station and that it was built around an old fire truck. Dave Burbank, a lieutenant at the Ithaca Fire Department and public communication officer, was unable to verify any facts about the restaurant’s construction. However, Burbank, a tall athletic man with a salt and pepper head of hair and a comfortable voice, said that it is certainly true that until 1968 the Collegetown firehouse was housed in the building The Nines now occupies. Burbank showed me faded black and white pictures of firefighters in old-fashioned hats and gear posing proudly in front of the old firehouse.

Today, the IFD has its Collegetown base next door to The Nines at 309 College Ave. The deceptively small concrete front of the College Ave. station conceals five floors of bunks and equipment as well as two fire trucks, an equipment truck and a ladder truck. The station has all the amenities necessary to create a homey environment for the firefighters who occupy the building. There is a kitchen, exercise room, rec room and two floors of bunks — one for firemen on night duty and one used to house “bunkers.” Bunkers are people who volunteer for the fire department in exchange for a place to live and are usually college students who work on a volunteer basis for three or four years.

Unfortunately, the number of bunkers and IFD volunteers has shrunk significantly in the last 20 years. Burbank said that 26 years ago, when he began working with the department, there were over 600 volunteers. Now there are only two or three volunteers and there are no bunkers. Burbank added that there are two reasons for this decline. First, he made me aware of the regrettable fact that “for the last few decades there has been less civic engagement overall.” Second, increased training requirements have both put higher demands on volunteers and increased the amount of money stations must pay to train volunteers. This higher training fee does not result in any reduced wage payments because volunteers cannot serve as substitutes for regular firefighters, so having more volunteers on call does not mean there can be fewer career firefighters.

This policy reflects the extensive training all firefighters must go through to become certified. Firefighters and volunteers must pass an annual physical exam as well as maintain certifications to use all equipment. Ithaca has a “small department so everyone is expected to do everything” from hazardous waste disposal to high-angle rope rescue (often from the gorges) to regular firefighting. Both volunteers and firefighters must also have basic emergency medicial technichian training. The fire department responds to fires as well as “potentially life threatening medical calls” and all staff must be constantly prepared. In addition, to be a career firefighter candidates must undergo initial training at the New York State Fire Academy for 13 weeks. Last but not least, most also have bachelor’s degrees from whatever area they concentrated in during college, often subjects like hydraulics or chemistry. Burbank himself studied journalism and radio broadcasting at Ithaca College before joining the IFD.

Being a firefighter is a demanding job with long and stressful hours, but it certainly has its rewards. “It’s a good job, but it’s a lot more than that, it’s a culture,” Dave said.

The 70 or so firefighters that staff the four fire stations in Ithaca and the surrounding area are a support system and family for one another. The community they have created is a large reason why people join the staff. Volunteers come in thinking that there is “no way” they would stay after college, but then they “start loving firefighting and come to work here in Ithaca.” Dave said that he certainly did not expect to become a firefighter full time. He worked as a volunteer while he was in college but then left after he graduated to work as a computer programmer. While he was gone, he kept in touch with the people at the station, and he said that “it always sounded like they were having so much fun.” He eventually decided he wanted to return to Ithaca and applied for a job at the fire department. He got the job and said he has “never looked back.” Burbank has worked as a career firefighter for the last 22 years and, in short, finds his job to be “very gratifying.”

The IFD stays busy with around 4,000 calls each year. The fires that occur on East Hill around Collegetown are not as numerous as those in the rest of the area, but tend to be more serious. Dave said that “Cornell is doing a wonderful job of maintaining levels of fire safety.” Most campuses have abysmal levels of fire safety in off-campus housing, but Cornell makes an effort to ensure that both the campus and its surrounding areas are safe. However, most of the calls the department receives are still easily preventable. A large part of the burden rests on college students themselves to make the right choices! Especially with the frigid weather keeping most of us cooped up indoors these days, make sure that when you are smoking or drinking indoors or even just hanging out, fire alarms are correctly installed and emergency exits are not blocked.