Kutztown University sophomore Katy Douillette is a thrill-seeker-she loves the excitement of a call from the fire station in the middle of the night; the rush of speeding to the scene; the majesty of a wave of water falling over flames that lick the sky far above her head.
But she’s also a people person.
Douillette has been volunteering with the Campbelltown Fire Company since age 14. Now that she attends Kutztown University, she volunteers at the Kutztown Fire Company simultaneously.
Being a firefighter is in Douillette’s blood. When she moved to Campbelltown at age 14, her dad asked her if she wanted to be a firefighter. He had been a firefighter for as long as she could remember, and her grandfather was a firefighter as well.
“I said yes, of course!” Douillette laughed.
Douillette says she practically lived at the Campbelltown Fire Company the summer before attending KU. As a freshman in a brand new environment, she found herself homesick for the firehouse.
“I thought, I need to go to a firehouse,” she said. “I need to see a truck. You know, every firehouse has a firehouse smell-it’s all the trucks and the equipment. I needed it.”
So she decided to join the Kutztown Fire Company. But being a volunteer firefighter takes some work.
“To actually fight fires, you have to go through rigorous requirements,” she explained. “You have to complete a packet of skills; you need to know the trucks, how to pack all the different kinds of hoses, how to use their airpacks-it takes a lot of dedication.”
It’s incredibly easy to join, though. At the Kutztown Fire Company, they’re always looking for volunteers, and it’s not difficult to sign up. Douillette recommends that anyone interested should simply head down to the station and ask for an application.
“Just ask to join,” she advised. “The firehouse is home to a variety of people from different backgrounds and of different ages; all are welcome there.”
There are approximately seven volunteers at Kutztown that are KU students. Douillette is the only female. Though she loves the thrill of volunteering at the firehouse, Douillette admits it is sometimes a little difficult.
“It’s hard as a student,” she said, “but I still try to go down every Thursday, at the very least, for their weekly drill.”
As an art education student, Douillette hopes to one day teach kids art for a living. But that will just be her day job.
“I want to be a firefighter forever,” she revealed. “Volunteering is so gratifying for me on its own. To be able to teach kids during the day and be a volunteer firefighter the rest of the time? I can’t think of a better job. I’m really a people person, I just love to volunteer in any way I can.”
Douillette also volunteers with KU’s Saint Christopher Catholic Newman Center as their sophomore representative.
“It’s just another way to get involved,” she explained. “It’s a really welcoming and friendly environment there, so it’s great for those trying to transition into college, or who just want to get more involved with the KU community.”
While she has been involved with the fire companies for several years, Douillette relates that unfortunately, she has never actually gone into a burning structure. She wants to, though.
“All the interesting calls tend to happen when I’m asleep,” she lamented.
However, Douillette did participate in a particularly eventful night of firefighting with the Campbelltown Fire Company last August. It was a fire that started at a sawmill, Douillette recalls.
“The call came in around 11:30 p.m., and we were up until six in the morning,” Douillette said.
Douillette describes the pile of wood set ablaze as the size of the Bear’s Den in KU’s McFarland Student Union building, “if not bigger.”
“We kept knocking it down, but the water pressure would lower, and the flames would go back up,” she said. “It was a long process. The flames were above the tree tops. But eventually we managed to put out the blaze.”
Article contributed by Kutztown University and written by KU graduate student Dale Bond, who graduated from KU with her undergraduate in May 2014, B.A. Professional Writing.
