by Thomas Good

My Story

Despite being busy with classwork, hockey, and other school clubs, as my sophomore year of high school was wrapping up I felt like something was missing. I did not necessarily have an abundance of free time, but after visiting my father at the firehouse, I immediately knew this was the missing piece. My father is a Master Firefighter and at the time was the Assistant Friday Night Shift Officer at the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department (RVFD), in Montgomery County, MD. The Friday I visited him, he was the unit officer on the Tower and was showing my brother and I around the station. He showed us the tools on each piece of apparatus and their function on the fireground. Then the 7 beeps sounded. A box alarm for a house fire in Rockville’s first due. He sprinted to the truck, got dressed and was out the door in less than a minute with the sirens blaring as they drove down the road. This rush of having to be prepared at any instant for a variety of situations was what I was lacking. This moment made me want to get involved in the fire service and to be like my father.

I applied to the RVFD on my 16th birthday and was voted into the department in September 2014. This was symbolic in a way as it was the same month that my father was voted in 24 years prior. By May of 2016, I had completed all of the classes required of an EMT and firefighter in Maryland. With my growing love for the fire service and engineering, I knew that I wanted to major in something that combined these passions. This led me to Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) at the University of Maryland (UMD). I first learned about the FPE department through one of the lab demonstrations that was given when I toured UMD. I walked into the lab and was amazed. I knew that I wanted to do engineering with a focus on the fire service and was surprised to find there was a major for exactly that! The demonstration itself was a small pool fire followed by an overview of the department and what their lab spaces had to offer. Ironically, the host from the FPE department was one of my distant cousins that my family hadn’t seen in years. She raved about the department and encouraged me to join. This was my first encounter with FPE and I was already in love. I knew after that demonstration that I wanted to be an FPE. I applied, was accepted, enrolled, and haven’t looked back since.

Come February of this year, the UMD spring career fair was coming up and I knew I wanted to get an internship within my major. The ideal company would be one that would marry my two passions of the fire service and engineering. After a conversion with the folks at the booth for the Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI), part of UL Research Institutes, I knew this is where I hoped I would spend my summer.

On the Job

While working here at FSRI this summer, I had the opportunity to work on several projects and expand my knowledge of applications used in the FPE field. The biggest project I worked on this summer was the examination of the use of fire dynamics analysis techniques on upholstered furniture fueled fires. While working on this project, I learned how to use the NRC Fire Dynamic Tools Spreadsheets and CFAST. The NRC Fire Dynamic Tools Spreadsheets are used to quantify the fire environment based on user provided input parameters for both the fuel and oxidizer. For example, I used the known heat release rate and material properties of the fuel from a fire in a compartment with known dimensions to calculate the upper layer smoke temperature, layer height, and pressure in the compartment. CFAST is a two-zone model that can simulate the upper and lower layer smoke temperatures, pressure, and heat release rate of a fire as a function of time for a user defined compartment. To assess the tools and input data, the results generated from the NRC Spreadsheets and CFAST were compiled and compared to experimental data. I also increased my knowledge of AutoCad and Revit completing multiple drawings for this project. We were also given the opportunity to travel to Philadelphia, PA and Cobb County, GA to help set up and watch experiments, both of which were an invaluable experience to me.

Overall, I have learned a lot of information in a short period of time. I have learned what testing equipment is required and the work required for an acquired structure burn. I have expanded my knowledge on programs I thought I knew how to use and learned new programs, all of which will help me in my future career. All of the information I have learned working on these projects and witnessing these experiments are valuable information that I can use to make me a better officer at the firehouse and aid in educating fellow members of my department about fire dynamics and the importance of understanding fire. Lastly, I found a career path that I never would have known was a possibility if it had not been for the opportunities provided to me this summer. I am grateful for the hospitality, mentorship, and experiences that have been given to me here at FSRI.