THE LASTING FLAME
OF THE PRIN FIRE BRIGADE

Last semester, shortly after students had packed their bags and headed home for a peaceful winter holiday, an unpredictable grassland fire sprouted near the college campus along Great River Road. While the fire did not endanger college property initially, it spread quickly and looked to be a serious threat if it could not be contained.

Fortunately for Principia, Arno List, a fire-protection certified staff-member was on campus ready to help. After calling the Alton department for assistance, List drove the Principia College fire truck to the edge of the blaze and hosed it down. fighting the fire for 36 hours straight, assisted by firefighters working in eight-hour shifts. “I came to work at a normal time that day and ended up fighting the whole night, into the morning and the next day. The whole fire lasted four days,” List says.

List’s work would not have been possible if Principia College did not have an on-campus fire brigade equipped with its own industrial fire truck. The brigade is a group of student volunteers whose primary responsibility is to help protect the college against dangerous wildland and forest fires.

In their training, brigade members learn to drive fire vehicles and heavy equipment, operate hoses, and contain fires. In addition to common fire safety equipment, the group owns multiple industrial vehicles, including a 20,000-pound fire truck, which was purchased in 1998. All of the group’s gear and equipment is funded by the campus facilities department.

According to List, The Principia College Fire Brigade has been around since the 1930s, when it was created to serve a larger community than just Principia. The group began as an active fire department and worked throughout the entire surrounding town of Alton as there was no regional fire department at the time. The brigade ran its operations out of an old firehouse located across from Rackham Court and responded to both wildland and structural fires in the surrounding area.

As the group continued to develop, brigade leaders sought a way to extend its influence by involving more of the Principia community. Out of this desire, the club decided to expand by instigating a culture of competition among house teams that competed in intense speed-based, preparing for, fighting and extinguishing fires in the shortest amount of time.

List, a member of the facilities team, is now the chief of the brigade and adviser to the group. He began his work with the brigade in the mid 1990s, at the height of the group’s popularity, when it included student and faculty volunteers, who met regularly to maintain the equipment and train themselves in case of emergency. List, who volunteered for a local fire department for over 17 years, explains that his role in the brigade is to “promote fire safety here on campus as it relates to campus buildings and property.”

As its popularity waned during the 1990s, the brigade shut down. Much to the disappointment of List and other dedicated members, there was no brigade for almost 20 years.

Marshall McCurties who graduated in 2015, saw the potential and opportunity that a revived brigade presented and restarted the group in 2012. Through his roles as student body president and admissions counselor, McCurties promoted the brigade by introducing students to the group during visiting weekends.

“Several students saw us during visiting weekends and many of those who came to the college ended up joining the group,” says List.

In 2015, the brigade moved operations from behind Rackham to a new building outside Hexburg, enabling the group to work more closely with facilities.

The current brigade has eight active student members who come to almost every meeting and are passionate about the continued success of the group. Now led by sophomore Sam Hills, the group is burning invasive honeysuckle on campus as it is detrimental to other plants.

Recently, the brigade has begun to collaborate with members of the biology department to help burn off different sections of forest on campus. A complete burn is supposed to happen once every 10 years in grassland areas like those around campus. Students who participate in the group learn how to safely control and put out fires using fire extinguishers, hoses and vehicles.

A few recent graduates have signed up with the forestry service in California, and some members are looking into joining their local fire departments after graduation.

Hills says that his two goals for the group are to find a coalition of “15 people who we can consistently rely on to perform a burn” and to “see a better perception of the brigade on campus.”

The group meets on Friday afternoons outside Hexburg. Hills says that “anyone can come to a meeting and eventually join if they want to.”

List says that at reunions, alumni still talk about the brigade. “When alumni come to reunion, people still ask about this organization. It certainly looks different to them because there is no longer house involvement, but it is still alive and serving a purpose.”

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