NOROVIRUS OUTBREAK

Medic 325
Photo: Airport web site

It was a busy night for the Reagan National Airport Fire Department.

On April 3, 2008, a norovirus infection sickened a dozen travelers with nausea as they headed home from a conference in Maryland. The airport fire department - with the assistance of Arlington County paramedics - treated the victims who were apparently infected at the conference.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control:

``Noroviruses are a group of related, single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis. ... People can become infected with the virus in several ways, including eating food or drinking liquids that are contaminated with norovirus; touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus, and then placing their hand in their mouth; having direct contact with another person who is infected.''

DC RIOTS - 1968

40th Anniversary

In 1968, Washington, D.C. burned following the April 4 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. Arlington County sent Wagons 2, 9 and 10, Engines 4 and 10, Truck 2 to aid the city's fire department. Disturbances broke out in sections of Arlington County as well.

Photo: Progressive Review

NEW STATION 5

STATION No. 5
Crystal City
1750 South Hayes Street
Arlington, VA 22202
Engine 105, Truck 105 & Medic 105

In 2008, the Arlington County Fire Department opened a new Station No. 5 in Crystal City - the latest in a series of firehouses to protect the community.

The original Company No. 5 was organized on Dec. 17, 1926, when the County Board of Alexandria County - as Arlington was then known - approved the charter of the Jefferson District Volunteer Fire Department.

The original company listed seven firefighters on its rolls and operated from a member’s garage at 206 Frazier Avenue - now 23rd Street South - in Aurora Hills.

In 1928, the volunteers opened a station at 101 Frazier Ave. (With the adoption of a new street naming scheme, the station was addressed 501 South 23rd St.)

During the early years, the members operated a hose wagon, a rescue squad and an ambulance.

In 1940, paid firefighters augmented the volunteers with the creation of the Arlington County Fire Department, and as time went on, the ACFD took over staffing of the engine company and ambulance.

In 1978, the original station was closed and firefighters moved to a station at 1750 South Hayes St., which is also the site of the new firehouse.

A monument stone from the original 1928 station - which was refurbished by Station 5 personnel - was placed at the new station, home of Engine 105, Truck 105 and Medic 105.

-Adapted from Arlington County Fire Department web site

HOUSE ENGULFED - 2008

UPDATED MAY 2008

PHOTO: Fire Lt. Jeff Kramer via http://www.acfd3.com/

Box 7602 - April 19, 2008 - 5:37 a.m.

``Units arrived with heavy fire showing from an old balloon frame single family home with extension to the `Delta' exposure,'' according to www.acfd3.com. ``A second alarm assignment and master stream devices brought the fire under control.''

RESCUE DOG `GUS'

Photo: U.S. Army

The Arlington County Fire Department received assistance from across the nation in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the Pentagon.

Among those to answer the call to duty were rescue dog ``Gus'' - and his handler, Ed Apple of Tennessee Urban Search and Rescue Task Force No. 1.

SNAKE BITE

On March 24, 2008, Arlington County firefighters used a fire extinguisher to freeze a rattlesnake that bit Andrew Bacas, crew coach at Yorktown High School. Bacas, 49, was unpacking his duffel bag after a team trip to South Carolina. A 10-inch-long rattler had stowed away in the bag - and bit his right hand. According to The Washington Post: ``Using a 10-foot pole, rescue workers gingerly unzipped the duffel bag, just enough to slip in the nozzle of a carbon dioxide extinguisher.''

PAGE AIRWAYS - 1945

On April 27, 1945, a Page Airways passenger flight crashed at National Airport:

Washington, April 27 -- (AP) -- A transport plane en route from Miami, Fla. to Rochester, N. Y., crashed and burned in taking off at the national airport today killing two persons and injuring a number of others.

A civil aeronautics administration official said the plane, operated by Page Airways, was carrying 13 persons including the pilot and co-pilot.

Coroner's deputies identified the dead as:

MRS. J. WELLAN, of New York City.
RALPH WEISMAN, Forest Hills, Long Island.

Names of the injured were not immediately available.

An officer at the army dispensary at the airport said 11 persons were taken there for treatment.

Airport attaches said the plane was on a chartered flight and had stopped at the airport for fuel.