Community members jump into action around massive fire at SPS Technologies.

On Feb. 17, when a four-alarm fire broke out at SPS Technologies, a manufacturing company less than two miles from Arcadia’s Glenside campus, members of nearly 80 fire companies responded over the course of five days. Among them were several volunteer firefighters who attend or work at Arcadia University.

Dave Washington is a captain of Glenside Fire Company. He’s also the maintenance lead for Arcadia’s Facilities Operations. The night of the fire, the volunteer of more than 40 years was manning the crew from the firehouse to other fire emergencies in the area, considering the number of local fire companies that were at the scene. 

Washington, whose father and two brothers were also firemen, expressed gratitude for being able to heed the call. “I would like to thank Arcadia and Tom Macchi and Michelle [Jaisir-Peters] for allowing me to leave work to respond to fire calls.”

Another member of Arcadia’s Facilities Operations team, Berel Chudzinski, is a seven-year veteran firefighter with Glenside Fire Company. He was on the scene for two days. 

“Monday night we were initially assigned to pull a 2 1/2″ line to the roof before being told to evacuate the roof and provide a water supply for the various aerials being put in service,” said Chudzinksi. “And Tuesday we were assigned to assist with spot fires that were popping up along the train tracks to the rear of the building. It’s a shame to see a staple of the community such as SPS be destroyed, and I really hope that they’re able to rebuild.”

Like both Washington and Chudzinski, Kyle Stump ’25, a Criminal Justice major, is a volunteer member of the Glenside Fire Company. He’s also a lieutenant at the Fire Department of Montgomery Township in Montgomeryville, Pa., and works part-time as a firefighter/EMT with several public safety organizations in Montgomery and Bucks counties. 

“While I was not directly involved with the SPS scene,” Stump said, “we responded to numerous other emergency incidents in the Willow Grove/Abington/Cheltenham area while crews were committed to the fire.” Stump’s fire service days pre-date his time as a Knight. He’s been doing it for almost six years now and got involved from a very young age because of his dad’s 10+ years of volunteering.

Other Arcadia students who serve their communities as volunteer firefighters include Crystal Gori ’26, a Law & Public Policy major, and Jake McGuriman ’27, who’s pursuing a Raising Expectations for Academic Learning (REAL) Certificate.

Gori joined the Glenside Fire Company last year in an effort to cater to the local deaf community; she recently taught the firefighters some emergency signs in American Sign Language. Gori is also a member of the Tafton Fire Company near her hometown of Tafton, Pa., which she first joined at age 15. A year later, she obtained her Exterior Firefighting Certificate and Hazardous Materials Operations Certificate. On occasion, she puts her Spanish minor to good use by translating accident and fire scenes from Spanish to English.

McGuriman has worked for the Fire Department of Montgomery Township for five years.

To all of these individuals, the University community commends you for your courage and commitment to keeping people safe, at a time when Pennsylvania is facing an historic shortage of volunteer firefighters. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, the state currently has about 30,000 volunteer firefighters, a mere 10 percent of what it had in the 1970s.