Our Beginnings

Here's a brief overview of how the HVFD (www.hyattsvillevfd.org) got online and has developed into a popular, complete fire service site.

Our Web site began simply in April 1996 when we placed our community newsletter, "Hyattsville Volunteers," under a student Internet account at the University of Maryland at College Park. I hadn't done any HTML (the language of the web) work before so it was about as basic as you can get.

The page soon evolved into a basic fire department Web site with an overview of the department, news and apparatus information all linked from one main index page.

As the site expanded and the campus account became quite slow for access, the department's board of directors approved the move of the site to a commercial Internet Service Provider (ISP) in July 1996.

At that time, there were only a few hundred related sites. Now there are thousands, with more cropping up every day, giving the emergency services a seemingly unending web presence.

A year later we get hundreds of visitors to our site daily from around the world -- and you can do the same.

Get Online!

Besides being a place to showcase your organization, you can use the Web as an excellent tool ... providing a vast amount of training, information and useful resources for anyone in the fire/rescue service.

At Hyattsville, we use the Internet as a daily means of communication. All of our officers and most of our active members have e-mail. Some have e-mail through their school or work, while others have purchased e-mail accounts through the department (i.e. member@hyattsvillevfd.org).

Ask your ISP to give you an access account for your computer at the firehouse so members without one can see the site and became Internet savvy.

We announce events and meetings, let people know about activities and even send documents over e-mail daily. Combined with the web site, the net can be a communications tool like no other.

"The web site and e-mail has proved to be a significant enhancement to keeping our own members informed of department activities," Hyattsville Fire Chief Donald B. Moltrup said.

In addition to giving the world a view of your organization, your web site can help recruit new members from the community, college students attending school in your area or others who may be moving to your town.

Developing and maintaining a site on the World Wide Web can give any public safety organization worldwide attention, regardless of size.

"The site has significantly enhanced the stature of this department in the community and within the fire service," Moltrup said. "My biggest problem is making sure that the department stands up to the high standards the web site has set."