Dennis Wood
National Fire Sprinkler Association
Member
Director of Operations
Linthicum Heights, MD
Dennis Wood started his fire service career in 1990 as a volunteer in his home town of Laurel, Maryland. Shortly after graduating with his bachelor’s degree in emergency health services, he was offered a position in Career Recruit School 27 for the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department in 1995. He supervised the Special Hazards division of Fire Prevention and Investigation who was responsible to respond to and investigate every residential fire sprinkler activation that occurred in the County. After completing his master’s degree in emergency health service administration in 2008, he served in several challenging roles, including Emergency Medical Services, Capital Improvements (Construction, Budgeting and Planning), and Human Resources (Hiring and Promotions). His position upon retiring in 2018 was serving as the Deputy Chief of the Emergency Services Command. This role served nearly 2,000 career employees and volunteer responders that addressed their community’s needs on just short of 150,000 incidents a year.
Starting at the National Fire Sprinkler Association shortly (two days) after retiring from the PGFD, he brings his experiences and education to serve the fire sprinkler industry in the interest of his fire service family. Any fire that is controlled quickly, prior to fire service arrival, is safer for occupants and responders, both acutely and chronically.
He is passionate about trying to bring order, process, and consistency to the challenges before him. He has used clinical quality assurance and process improvement models and techniques such as Six Sigma throughout his career to better understand and control performance and execution. Dennis currently serves as the Director of Operations for the National Fire Sprinkler Association from Headquarters in Linthicum Heights, MD.
514 Progress Dr Ste A, Linthicum Heights, MD 21090-2214