A tale of two fire departments

We actually fight fires with them. It’s like an extended family for us”

Ex-Freeport Fire Chief Don Rowan

Freeport Fire Department Chief Executive Ray Maguire and a delegation of Freeport firefighters made a special trip to Walldorf, Germany, in mid-October.

It wasn’t the first trip between the two cities and their fire departments, and it won’t be the last. This trip was special, however, because it was supposed to have happened in May 2020. The delegation leader was supposed to have been Freeport Mayor Robert Kennedy, and the occasion was to have been the 1,250th anniversary of Walldorf.

The coronavirus pandemic canceled that trip. Not until this October, upon the dedication of a new fire department building in Walldorf, could a replacement trip be arranged. Kennedy had a scheduling conflict, so Maguire went on his behalf.

When Maguire presented a plaque and other gifts to Walldorf Mayor Matthias Renschler, he inspired applause by speaking his address in German.

“I had the pleasure and privilege of presenting a plaque to them on behalf of the village,” Maguire said in a phone interview, “but Chief [Don] Rowan is really the main guy with Germany.”

According to former fire chief Don Rowan, the trips between Walldorf and Freeport have taken place for decades, with great mutual benefit on both sides of the Atlantic. The two municipalities have been official sister cities since 2003, but the relationship was first established between the Freeport Fire Department and the “Freiwillige Feuerwehr” (volunteer fire department) in Walldorf about 50 years ago.

“One of our members was stationed in Germany during the ’60s, I believe it was 1968,” Rowan said, “and there was a family over in Walldorf that had family in Hempstead. Ex-Chief Alan Grosser would go over and pay a visit to them.”

Starting in the mid-1980s, Grosser’s visits began to include other firefighters, and members of the Walldorf fire companies came to Freeport. Each year since then, the groups from both nations have grown. The relationship has become an indissoluble bond.

“Walldorf comes to us usually every year for our installation dinner in April,” Rowan said. “We go over there every October for their fall festival. It’s not uncommon for me to be taking 60 people over to Germany every year.”

Among those 60 people might be firefighters from Freeport, Point Lookout, Baldwin, Merrick, North Merrick, Lindenhurst, North Lindenhurst, Sayville or even Hauppauge, because, as Rowan put it, “There’s a fire service brotherhood,” and firefighters from other municipalities join the occasion.

Similarly, when the German firefighters come over to Freeport, some are from Walldorf, while others might be from Hamburg, Heidelberg or other nearby places.

The core of the interchange is learning about one another’s firefighting lives.

“In Germany, they operate a lot differently than we operate in the U.S.,” Rowan said, “so the firemen get wrapped up looking at their equipment.”

Walldorf’s venerable streets are narrow compared to common U.S. municipal configurations, Rowan said, so their vehicles and equipment are small and compact. Their hose storage arrangements don’t resemble the huge hose beds on U.S. fire trucks, and other aspects of their equipment differ because the construction of buildings differs.

“In the U.S., we do our building structures mostly with wood frame construction,” said Rowan, “so when a building catches fire, we have fire traveling in the walls. But over in Germany, especially since [World War II], any new buildings are made of concrete. So they don’t have fire traveling through the walls like we have. A lot of their fires can be put out with extinguishers, unless it’s an older building or a really large fire.”

Also unlike their U.S. colleagues, many German fire departments are trained in chemical and biological weapons, owing to occurrences during the Cold War. And in Hamburg, unexploded bombs left over from World War II still get discovered and have to be defused, a duty that falls to the firefighters.

“When we go over there, they actually put gear on us,” Rowan said. “We actually fight fires with them. … It’s like an extended family for us. I speak to Walldorf probably at least twice a week. When Covid hit, we talked almost daily because we weren’t able to do our normal trips.”

So close are the Walldorf-Freeport ties that Walldorf fire companies raised funds for the families of the five Freeport firefighters who died on 9/11, and also for firefighters whose homes suffered flood damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

On this side of the Atlantic, an organization started by Freeport called the American Germany Firefighters Friendship Club does yearly fundraisers at Pier 95 in Freeport and at a German restaurant in Lindenhurst.

“We put money together that way with T-shirt sales, and we use that for the gifts that we buy for Walldorf or we take care of them when they come here,” Rowan said. In a bit of role reversal in 2020, Walldorf’s firefighters bought 200 of the T-shirts to help provide for the families of two Freeport firefighters who died of Covid-19.

The two cities have regularly hosted each other’s exchange students.

“One kid’s name was Marco Bis,” Maguire said. “He stayed with us three years ago and he stayed all year. He went to Freeport High School. Our five kids bonded with him unbelievably. They’re so close that he’s like a member of the family. This year, he’s coming on Dec. 23 and staying with us until Jan. 6.”

For many years, Rowan and former fire chief and village trustee Don Mauersberger have handled most of the trip planning, which requires a willingness to maintain constant contact and wrestle through travel logistics. The two men work entirely as volunteers.

In recognition of Rowan’s and Mauersberger’s efforts, the Walldorf Fire Department submitted their names to the German Firefighters Association in Berlin, and at the October ceremony, they were both awarded the International Cooperation Silver Medal for promoting friendship between Germany and the United States.

“It was kind of nice,” Rowan said.

He emphasized that no tax dollars are involved in the trips. The firefighters each pay their own way. The reciprocal benefits of the relationship more than justify the cost, the firefighters say.

“It’s really amazing,” Rowan said, “how no matter what country you’re in, if you’re a fireman, you’re a fireman, and it’s really nice to see the way the firemen around the world interact with one another.”

Mayor Kennedy said, “I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to join the annual celebrations both in Germany and Freeport for the past eight years [except for the Covid-related delay]. I look forward to joining the Walldorf mayor and fire department again in October of 2022.”