By Hannah Harris
Victor Jeong, a senior fire protection engineering student, watched a team of fellow Laurel volunteer firefighters put out the flames of an engulfed car during the first fire run on a dark fall evening. Jeong observed the wreckage and was unable to help due to a lack of proper equipment. The windows had shattered from the heat.
“Before even getting there, you can actually feel the radiative heat on your skin from the fire. It’s like a campfire,” said Jeong.
Jeong has been a fire protection engineering student at the University of Maryland since transferring from Howard Community College in 2024. He has been a volunteer firefighter at various firehouses in Laurel, Maryland, for six years.
Fire protection engineers “utilize science and engineering principles to design fire suppression, detection, and other safety systems with the objective of providing increased fire and life safety,” according to the National Fire Protection Association. Popular careers include fire safety consultants, fire protection system designers and fire safety researchers.
As a child, Jeong rotated between dream careers. He once thought he would want to be a pastor. Then, he dreamed of being a soccer player. He even thought of becoming a K-Pop idol. It wasn’t until high school that Jeong learned about fire protection engineering. Later, his professors at Howard Community College acted as mentors in the field.
“With fire protection, I have so many lives I can save [and] so many people I can help,” Jeong said.
UMD’s fire protection engineering undergraduate program has just over 80 students enrolled, according to fpeinsider, an Instagram account dedicated to a deeper look into the program. The department was founded in 1956 and remains the only fully accredited undergraduate program of its kind in the country.
Sarah Tilley, a sophomore fire protection engineering student, is interested in pursuing a career in forensic fire investigation. She says the major provides students with ample pathways.
“FPE, because it is such a small major, it’s not like any of the other majors where you have to pick a track. You can kind of do whatever,” Tilley said.
Another fire protection engineering student, junior Teresa Edwards, is interested in code consulting.
“I was worried I was going to be kind of pigeonholed or stuck in one area. But there’s so much within the industry,” Edwards said.
Recent changes within the Department of the Interior could impact the future of fire protection in the government and employment for FPE students.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in June 2025 aiming to reform national firefighting efforts after the Los Angeles wildfires that year.
“Empowering Commonsense Wildfire Prevention and Response” condenses firefighting efforts from five agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — into one agency, the Wildland Fire Service.
Trump released a budget request for 2027 on April 3. The proposed budget allocates almost $4 billion to Wildland Fire Service operations within the Wildland Fire Service and almost $3 billion into a reserve fund within the Department of the Interior, according to the International Fire Chiefs Association.
However, there is no requested funding set aside for the State Fire Assistance and Volunteer Fire Assistance programs. The budget has yet to be approved.
Jeong has previous experience interning at the National Park Service and was originally interested in wildfire fighting as a career. He came to understand the unpredictability of fire during his time at Lassen Volcanic National Park in Northeastern California.
Now, Jeong wants to research fire protection techniques abroad and bring that knowledge back to the States. He described his passion for fire protection research that was partially inspired by his close proximity to wildland firefighters.
“These wildland firefighters, they put their lives on the line … they have to basically create a perimeter, and they have to be intimate with these fires. So that’s why so many of them, unfortunately, passed away in the line of duty. And that made me realize how much research has to be done for wildland firefighting,” Jeong said.
Featured Image: The entrance to UMD’s Fire Protection Engineering Department. Photo by Kendrick Brown.