The Fort Detrick fire department has been named the best medium-sized department in the Army, base officials said Monday.
The installation in Frederick hosts the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health research and other sensitive activities. In 2013, Fort Detrick Fire and Emergency Services responded to 1,560 calls on the base and in the Frederick and Silver Spring communities it also serves.
"These men and women are some of the finest Professionals I've had the pleasure to serve with for the past 30 years of Federal service," emergency services director Ray Wharton said in a statement. "We sleep better knowing they're on duty."
Fort Detrick will now compete for best medium-sized department in the Department of Defense.
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