Md. EMS assistant chief dies suddenly | Chongqing Ems Training Co.,Ltd

Linda Dousa served with the Abingdon Fire Company, the Maryland State Firemen's Association and the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association

By Jason FontelieuBaltimore Sun

ABINGDON, Md. — Linda Foster was the ambulance captain of the Abingdon Fire Company in 1984 when she met Bill Dousa, ambulance captain for the Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company. Bill said they often would work together when having to check each other's supply of morphine in their ambulances.

A year later, Bill Dousa began working at the Abingdon Fire Company and the pair soon began working as partners. They married in December 1995.

"A lot of married couples who were in the same level of training can't ride together," Bill said. "They tend to growl at each other too much.

"But Linda and I did fine."

Linda Dousa, a longtime member of the Abingdon Fire Company, died at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center early Monday after suffering a sudden medical event at her home on Sunday. She was 65.

"She’ll be remembered as a wonderful woman who cared for the community," Bill Dousa said.

Linda Dousa first started working at the Abingdon Fire Company in 1978. She served as an EMS assistant chief for the company from 1996 to 2009 and again starting in 2022, according to her husband, the company's secretary.

Bill Dousa said his wife was "involved in about a million things." For example, she was the Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association's EMS coordinator and the Maryland State Firemen's Association's EMS committee chair.

Cubby Bair, the Abingdon Fire Company's fire chief, worked with Linda Dousa at the Abingdon Fire Company for decades; he started there in 1974. He also knew her back when they both went to Edgewood High School.

"She was very dedicated," Bair said.

For a time, he said, he lived across the street from her and the two would ride together to the firehouse.

Bair said Linda Dousa did a lot to save people's lives and was "one of those most active individuals in volunteer fire and EMS service that you’ll ever see."

"She was a positive influence on EMS in general in the state, especially Harford County," Bair said.

Beyond that, Bill Dousa will remember his wife as "a wonderful lady [and a] wonderful companion for nearly 30 years."

Bill said his wife was likely a record-setter at the Edgewood Library with how many books she checked out.

The couple attended church at Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Edgewood and enjoyed going on cruises; they had one scheduled this August to Greenland. When they wanted to travel with their cats, Patches and Tribble, they’d go to their motorhome in White Oak Campground in Pennsylvania.

A mass for Linda Dousa will be held at 10 a.m., May 5 at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Abingdon followed by a memorial at Abingdon Fire Company.

According to her obituary on the McComas Family Funeral Homes’ website, contributions can be made to the Abingdon Fire Company or Prince of Peace Catholic Church in lieu of flowers.