This week, the Hyattsville Volunteer Fire Department launched, with a slew of new features for
both our visitors and members, a much needed first major upgrade in three years
The HVFD site first launched in 1995 as one of the first fire department Web sites in the nation. Since then its served as a resource and gsteway for our community, our members, recruiting efforts and much more.
It is almost hard to believe that its been over 10 years since the first HVFD web site launched, then just
serving as a place to post our community newsletter. We moved to our original domain, HyattsvilleVFD.org in September, 1996.
New Site Features
- Improved News Presentation: New dynamic news controls will allow us to
more quickly update the site, plus a few new cool features including the ability to print, e-mail
or PDF any article; and at the bottom of the home page and news pages, you’ll find
real-time national fire service headlines vis RSS. Plus our most popular articles are listed there too! Over time, we’ll be adding all of our archives
back to 1995. - RSS Feeds: Add HVFD headlines to your RSS Reader or any personal start page,
such as My Yahoo and Google. - Member Profiles: More member profiles than ever, thanks to a new system thst allows
members to start and update their own profiles. - Apparatus Showcase: More apparatus images, including a section of our new gallery
filled with photos of our fleet. - Flash Slideshow: At the top of all pages, there’s a new Flash-based slideshow
showcasing images from the HVFD. We’ll be changing these photos regularly, and adding more
slideshows to specific sections in the near future. - More Document Downloads: Fast access to our most popular downloads, including
SOPs and policies. - Thousands of Images: We’ve added a new photo gallery
feature, which already has over 2,000
photos taken over the years. We will be categorizing these images further in the coming months, adding more
photos and enabling plug-ins that will permit posting slideshows of top HVFD images on services like Myspace. - Alumni Page: In addition to the ability to
browse profiles of our current members, our new alumni page showcases
what our members have done outside the HVFD. This section will continue to expand! If you are a alum, tell us
where you are now and where you’ve been by filling out our contact form.
More New Features: Integrating Google
The new HVFD.com takes advantage of several plug-ins and services available from Google, including:
- Enhanced Search: Utilizing Google’s Co-Op search, the HVFD’s new site search allows us to have a much more robust search engine, and a secondary search service that searches all fire department sites in the Washington, D.C. metro aresa.
- Mapping & Directions: Visitors can browse our first due from above using integrated Google Maps, as well as quickly get directions to the HVFD from any location.
- New Video Center: We’ve posted several videos and slideshows from recent years in our Video Center, using Google Video to power the content so you never have to leave the site to watch. More videos are coming soon.
We’re also using Google’s Analytics tool for our web site reporting. All of these tools are free to use and make great additions for any department’s Web site.
For Members: Expanded Intranet & E-Mail Capabilities
Besides being able to update their own profiles easily, the HVFD has also joined Google’s new
Domain E-Mail service, which allows us to have a fully robust e-mail platform for our members, with features
including:
- Ability to send and receieve e-mail from yourname@hvfd.com accounts.
- Ability to use the account as their master e-mail service, with capability to send or
receieve e-mail from all of their other e-mail accounts from the single HVFD login. - Full e-mail list management capabilities to easily contact specific groups, or all members.
- Integrated Contacts, permitting members to quickly find another member’s e-mail address.
- Up to 2GB of e-mail storage and all the comprehensive features of a full Google GMail account,
only branded as the HVFD. - A personalized HVFD member start page with department calendar features, latest e-mail, and numerous
features such as custom news headlines, weather, and more than members can add to their start pages easily.
Special thanks to Chris Mitchell, and all the members of the HVFD who submitted profiles, photos and other content and suggestions for the new site. We will be adding more photos, video and related content in the coming weeks.
Feel free to send your feedback via our contact form.
