James “Eddie” Kiser III began his volunteer fire service in 1991 as a riding member at the Riviera Beach Volunteer Fire Company (RBVFC). He has been around the fire company his entire life thanks to his dad, uncles, and cousins. At age eight, he knew what he wanted to be and that was a fireman.

Eddie started taking classes at the age of 16 and has been taking classes for the past 28 years.  He started off as a red stripe and worked his way up to firefighter in a short period of time.

At age 17, he was an EMT-A. At the age of 18, he became a squad driver.  Eddie knew then he wanted to be a career fireman and wasn’t going to give up until he got it.

Eddie took every test there was up and down the east coast by age 20. He took Fire Officer 1and became a volunteer Lieutenant at age 21. At age 25, he was hired by the Baltimore City Fire

Department while he still continued to be an active volunteer in the county. At age 28, he was married with one child and moved on to the Washington DC Fire Department where he took the rank of volunteer Captain. A short time later by age 33, Eddie became the volunteer Chief and was still taking classes for both work and the Anne Arundel County citizens. Married and now with two children, Eddie had the privilege of having one of his mentors ask him to become an MFRI Instructor because “he had too much knowledge locked up in his head not to share it”.

He still takes great pride in knowing the craft that he has chosen and keeps learning the craft. He has been blessed with having amazing classes throughout his MFRI career, passing onknowledge and having his students achieve the same drive as himself. Many are now officers attheir volunteer companies and many have gone on to career firefighter jobs. Eddie has neverstopped being a dedicated volunteer in his community. Between home life with kids and acareer, he still makes time for the company including teaching younger members the craft.

Eddie has been awarded the Boots Raynor Award, EMS Provider of the Year Award, Top Fireand Top EMS Responder many times. Through the county, he has seven unit citations for various calls he has been on. In Washington DC, he received three Accommodations for actions on calls all going back to his start as a young kid at the fire house and wanting to learn more about the job.

Eddie remembers the day he said he wanted to be a squad guy. It was the day Patty Brown,

Mike She, and Ray McCormick did a 1991 roof top rescue in downtown Manhattan, “That’s what I want to do”. Due to that drive and determination, he made it to Special Operations in the Washington DC Fire Department. With Fire, EMS, and Rescue Classes, he has over 500 hours in the classroom and many, many, many more on the street.

Currently, Eddie is the Company Training Officer and has served on the Anne Arundel County
Training Committee. He also designed E131 and Truck 13 and was the chairperson for that
committee. He has also volunteered his time with fundraising activities to include Bingo, Pit
Beef, Carnival, Gun Bash, Open Houses, and community Santa Runs.