In fall 2022, Alex Riggs ’26 was exploring the Purple Key Fair when she came across two students in firefighting turnout gear. They were advertising the Williams College Firefighters’ Association (WCFA), an organization of student firefighters who volunteer at the Williamstown Fire Department. Riggs, with no prior experience, decided to sign up.
Now co-president of WCFA, Riggs is one of six active student volunteer firefighters in the department. Students have been a part of the fire department since Will Titus ’23 and Grant Gattuso ’23 founded the organization in March 2022, according to Riggs. However, in the early years, only one or two students at a time volunteered. Founders and former WCFA co-Presidents Titus and Gattuso hoped to facilitate collaboration between the College and the fire department. “I definitely credit them for how many more students we have now,” Riggs told the Record in an interview. “I know that it’s really appreciated by the department.”
All members of the department, except the chief, are part-time volunteers. As a result, students are a vital part of the force, Riggs said. “Us being students … and living near the station allows them to respond to calls more quickly and efficiently with more people,” she said.
Riggs is also one of only two female firefighters in the department. The lack of female representation was originally a concern for her, but she has found everyone in the department to be welcoming and inclusive, she said.
Riggs said that her male coworkers have also acknowledged that she brings unique skills to the fire department. “If we have a medical call and the patient is a woman, I may be able to make her feel more comfortable,” she said. “Or, if we’re trying to enter somewhere that has a small entry place, I might be able to get in while some of my male coworkers may not.”
However, outside of the fire department, Riggs has faced what she described as unfair assumptions when people learn about her volunteer work. “People have asked me if I do administrative work for the department guys,” she said. “There’s certain other departments in the area that we’ve had to interact with — for trainings or things like that — where people have said things that have made me uncomfortable, like that I should ‘fluff up my hair’ and ‘smile more.’”
WCFA student volunteers are trained largely on the job, said Will Tinson ’27, who joined the department this year. “Every call that you go on, you’re learning something new,” they said. “Some of the firefighters have nearly 50 years of time in the department. You’re just learning so much every day.”
Outside of calls, student firefighters attend a weekly two-hour training session with the department on Monday nights and student-only trainings on Wednesday nights. This year, new recruits also had basic recruit training from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday for six weeks, which covered ladder operations, search and rescue operations, fire behavior and attack strategies, and other essential skills for responding to interior fires, Tinson said.
The volunteers’ work schedule can be unpredictable. Some weeks, the students receive a call every day or multiple times a day, Riggs said. Other weeks, several days will pass without a call. Volunteers have to be ready to respond to a call at any moment, Riggs said. However, she acknowledged that answering calls is up to the discretion of the student. “I try to go to most calls unless I have a really good reason not to. Other students prefer to prioritize school work and then only go when it works for them.”
Volunteers respond to a wide range of emergencies, including car accidents, ice rescues, downed power lines, and bush fires. The department also often gets called in to assist other nearby fire departments, such as in Pownal, Vt.; New Ashford, Mass.; and North Adams, Mass.
One particularly memorable call for Riggs was last year in New Ashford, when someone had committed arson and set an abandoned building on fire. “By the time we got there, the house was caving into the center,” Riggs said. “New Ashford has a very small department — they only have two people on call at any given time. We were able to bring our truck with a water supply because there was no hydrant nearby either.” The opportunity to put out such a large fire while working with unfamiliar people was an invaluable experience, Riggs said.
Last winter, the volunteers also responded to a call from a woman who had crashed her car into a ditch. The firefighters had to perform an extraction of the woman, who was disabled, and her dog from the car. “We immediately started working,” Riggs said. Luckily, the team was able to quickly extract the woman and her dog safely. “It was really amazing seeing how we immediately came together and got out all the tools that we needed,” Riggs said.
“I can’t think of a much better feeling than putting in everything you’ve got to try to get things under control, then after a few hours get to see the direct results of your work,” Tinson said.
