BONDS OF 9/11

Photo: ARL Now web site
On Aug. 29, 2010, the New York City Fire Department presented the Arlington County Fire Department with a steel girder from the ruins of the World Trade Center to commemorate the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The ceremony was held at Fire Station No. 5 in Crystal City, the nearest county fire station to the Pentagon.

AIRPORT DRILL - 2010

Photos: WTOP

On Sept. 18, 2010, firefighters from across the Washington region participated in an emergency exercise at Washington National Airport.

KNICKERBOCKER - 1922

Under the weight of snow from a blizzard, the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington collapsed on Jan. 28, 1922 - killing 98 people.

More than 100 others were injured at the building at 18th Street and Columbia Road in the Adams Morgan section of the city.

Snow plied high from the two-day storm -  subsequently dubbed  the "Knickerbocker Blizzard" - delayed fire engines.

Hundreds of soldiers and Marines augmented firefighters and police officers in the rescue effort, and Walter Reed Army Hospital sent ambulances.

A dispatch published in The Bridgeport Telegram, a newspaper in Connecticut, reported:

"Firemen worked all night with their picks and shovels. Despairingly they endeavored to remove the concrete of the inner shell of the ceiling roof and walls that had crumbled so suddenly beneath the thousands of pounds of the snow that buried the streets and roofs of the city.

"Soldiers from Fort Myers were detailed with [illegible] torches to cut through the twisted mass of steel and aid in the rescue.

"Inside the buckles walls of the theatre, the early arriving rescuers reported that they were unable to see a single member of the audience when work began. The ceiling had literally engulfed the crowd, variously estimated at between 800 and 1,500 persons.

"The widespread balcony, extending over nearly half of the lower floor of the ill-fated auditorium was sheared away as though by the scythe of death.

"Those who were seated in the balcony were partly protected by the fact that the debris was most under them rather than over them. Peculiarly enough, although the walls are bulged outward, not a window was broken in the theatre.

"The blanket of tragedy, white with the heaviest snowfall in the city’s record since the late ‘60’s, had all fallen straight down.

"Bassett Prudigan, a volunteer rescue worker, late this afternoon uncovered a man who sat bolt upright in his seat. The debris had formed an arch over him. There were no marks on this man to indicate injury. He was dead. His eyes were open.

"His whole appearance was indicative of the fact that he had been gazing at the picture that began the performance and that the shock had killed him." 

The newspaper also reported:

"Among the leaders in the work of rescue amid the ruins of the Knickerbocker theatre throughout the night was Representative Alben W. Barkley, Democrat, of the first Kentucky district.

"Those about him, striving frantically to dig through tons of re-enforced concrete, broken steel girders and piles of snow, while piteous cries and shrieks for help came from those pinned beneath the debris, saw in their tall, heavy-set co-worker only a calm deliberate fearless leader.

"They knew not that down in his heart he strove to keep back a conviction born of fear that the next body reached every time would be that of his own fifteen-year-old son, Murrell.

"In the street outside, hysterical, praying, Mrs. Barkley waited – with what emotions only a mother can understand.

"Young Murrell had left for the theatre only half an hour before the roof caved in."

COMMAND UNIT

Arlington County Fire Department command unit

Vehicle specifications for Arlington County Fire Department command unit, manufacturered by E-One.

Body Model: Rescue/SpecialtyBody
Material: aluminum
Cab Make/Model: Spartan Gladiator E/R#
Cab Seats: 2
Engine Brand/Model/Horsepower: Cummins ISC 350
Transmission Brand/Model: Allison MD 3066P
Generator Make/Capactiy: Onan 35kw PTO, Powertech 20 kw Diesel

LEXINGTON ST. - 2009

House Fire - 2009

North Lexington Street

From IAFF2800.com

FUNDS RESTORED

On April 24, 2010, the Arlington County Board voted to restore $1.5 million to the county budget - allowing the fire department to continue to operate two heavy rescue companies, according to The Washington Post.

FRANK HIGGINS

"It is with great sadness, I announce the passing of FRANK R. HIGGINS. Frank passed away April 9, 2010. Frank served the Arlington County Fire Department as a firefighter, the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department as an Officer and Past President."

Charles Satterfield, President
Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department

PENTAGON SHOOTING

On March 4, 2010, the Arlington County Fire Department responded to a shooting at the Pentagon that injured two police officers and led to the fatal wounding of the gunman. Engines 105 and 110, Truck 105, Medics 105, 101 and 110, Battalion 111 and EMS 111 were assigned to the call.

FORT MYER - 1918

Photo: www.firetrucks-atwar.com
Scene at U.S. Army's Fort Myer in Arlington, Virginia, in 1918.

GREEN STAMPS - 1960

Photos: Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department
On Nov. 6, 1960, firefighters from Falls Church and Fairfax County battled a fire at the S&H Green Stamps Store on Hillwood Avenue in Falls Church. One man was injured. The fire companies names in the original caption are No. 6 Falls Church, No. 18 Jefferson and No. 10 Bailey's Crossroads.

CHICKEN OR STEAK?

Photo: Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department
Arlington County Fire Department training bureau van at shopping center on Columbia Pike in 1986.

BLIZZARD OF 2010

FLASHBACK - Knickerbocker Storm of January 1922. Theater collapse killed 98 people in Washington, D.C.

Photo: www.acfd3.com
Ready to roll for blizzard duty. Apparatus floor at Arlington County Station 106 in Falls Church, including National Guard wrecker at center and the volunteer's venerable Light & Air 103 in the foreground. Also in photo - Truck 106, volunteer ambulance and rescue company.

Photo: www.STATer911.com

Apparatus floor at Fairfax County Station 410 in Bailey's Crossroads after roof collapse on Feb. 8, 2010. There were no injuries. The structure gave way at 3 a.m. while the platoon was in the bunk room. Station 410 covers parts of Arlington.

The Washington area was pounded by back-to-back winter storms between Feb. 5 and Feb. 11, 2010, forcing the closure of the federal government, airports, schools and businesses. Commercial power and mass transit were also disrupted.

The snowfall set a seasonal record of 54.9 inches of snow at National Airport in Arlington, according to the National Weather Service. Forecasters compared the snow to the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922, which caused the collapse of a Washington movie house called Crandall's Knickerbocker Theater. That catastrophe killed 98 people and injured 133 others.

During the Blizzard of 2010, the emergency services operated in hazardous conditions, and the National Guard loaned a heavy-duty wrecker to the Arlington County Fire Department. The giant vehicle was assigned to Fire Station 106 in Falls Church.

On Feb. 8, the snowfall caused the collapse of the roof over the apparatus bay of Fire Station 410 in Bailey's Crossroads in Fairfax County. There were no injuries. The structure gave way at 3 a.m. while the platoon was in the bunk room.

According to the Fairfax County Fire Department: "Firefighters were alerted by a loud screeching noise in the apparatus bay. A fire engine, ladder truck, three EMS units, and a utility truck were all extensively damaged. Several personally owned vehicles parked next to the station were totaled."

The Bailey's Crossroads firehouse, which provides service to parts of Arlington County, was built in 1974 and the roof was replaced in 1998.

Fire stations in Annandale and Alexandria also sustained roof damage, according to news reports.

• BLIZZARD ALERT! Keep neighborhood fire hydrants clear of snow and ice - and easily visible to firefighters in the event of a fire. Adopt a fire plug!

APPARATUS BAY

Photo: Photography on the Net
Truck 105 and Engine 105 at Crystal City, Virginia

FOAM 161

Photo: IAFF Local F-253
Foam 161 of the Fort Myer Fire Department is a 2001 E-ONE TITAN. It replaced the foam wagon destroyed at the Pentagon attack on Sept. 11, 2001. Foam 161 is assigned to cover the Pentagon fire station.

FEATURES
1000 Gallon Tank
200 Gallon Foam
500 lbs. of Purple K
1500 GPM
Roof and Bumper Turrets
100' Hose Reel (Water, Foam, Purple K)

FLEET - 1960

Photo: www.acfd3.com
Fire department fleet at drill school in 1960.

MCKAY'S FAREWELL

Operations Chief Scott McKay, a veteran of the Pentagon attack on Sept. 11, 2001 who also led a team of firefighters during the Hurricane Katrina recovery along the Gulf Coast, retired in January 2009. In his farewell message, he wrote: "I wanted to express my gratitude and admiration to all of you. Working alongside some of the finest people I have ever met, this has been one hell of a ride. This fire department has come a long way since I joined in 1980. The level of professionalism at all levels of the organization is what makes this a great place to work."

OLD NO. 6

Photo: www.acfd3.com
Old Fire Station No. 6 at Falls Church, Virginia

OLD GLEBE ROAD

On Nov. 25, 2009, James Bea, a 24-year employee of the Arlington County public works department, was electrocuted at the site of a watermain break at Old Glebe Road and Glebe Road. Another worker was seriously injured.

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Photos: Channel 5 television and Arlington County Government

ARLINGTON'S FIRE CHIEFS

UPDATED AUGUST 2019

David Povlitz: Appointed October 2018. Veteran of Anne Arundel County and City of Alexandria fire departments. Holds Master of Science in Management and bachelor of Science in Fire Science from University of Maryland

James Bonzano:  Appointed May 2016. Veteran paramedic. Led EMS  branch at Sept. 11, 2001 attack on Pentagon. Served in variety of command positions including deputy chief, personnel services section chief, EMS battalion chief, EMS captain. Master’s degree from Marymount University in Organizational Leadership and Innovation. Retired 2018.

James Schwartz: Appointed fire chief in June 2004. As assistant chief for operations led unified command at Sept. 11, 2001 attack on Pentagon. Tapped as as county Director of Emergency Management in April 2003 until his appointment as Fire Chief. Appointed deputy county manager in August 2015. 

Edward Plaugher: Led department during Sept. 11, 2001 attack on Pentagon. Credited with having foresight to plan for potential terrorism. Established two heavy rescue and two quint companies. Named "Career Fire Chief of the Year" by Fire Chief Magazine in 2004. Veteran of Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department.

Thomas Hawkins:  Advocated diversity and training. Oversaw opening of county fire academy campus and Glebe Road fire station. Served as program manager at National Fire Academy prior to appointment. Associate professor of fire services at Northern Virginia Community College. Appointed City of Alexandria Fire Chief in 1993.

Robert Groshon: Hired nation's first female career firefighter. County's first paramedic units placed in service on Groshon's watch. Played key role in establishment of Northern Virginia automatic mutual aid plan. Advocated safety yellow color scheme for fire apparatus.

Joseph Clements: Oversaw post World War Two expansion of fire department, including opening of Fire Stations 9 and 10.  Supervised operations at 1959 Pentagon fire.  

Albert Scheffel: Appointed first fire marshal in 1927. Appointed to new post of fire chief in 1930s. Hired first paid firefighters from the county's volunteer ranks in 1940.

EAGLE 2

Photo: U.S. Government
Arlington County firefighters and paramedics transfer patients to the U.S. Park Police helicopter "Eagle 2" at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.

GOV. KAINE

Photo: Arlington County web site
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine meets Arlington County firefighters at ceremony in 2006. Rescue 104 is in the background.

911 CENTER

Arlington County ECC - Emergency Communications Center

WALTER REED - 1920

Washington Times - Dec. 14, 1920

LADDERS UP!

Photo: www.acfd3.com
Dec. 7, 2008 - Two-alarm fire at 124 Rolling Trace, Falls Church

BUCK & TUCK

Buck Cumberland (left) served for many years as chief of the Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Department in Arlington County, Virginia. His brother, Tuck, was chief of the Ballston Volunteer Fire Department, also in Arlington.

Photo: Cherrydale VFD

PLANT FIRE

Photo: www.acfd9.com

Fire at concrete plant, 2006

OLD WOODLAWN

Photo: Falls Church Volunteer Fire Dept. web site

Crews on the scene of an April 1974 fire at the old Woodlawn School, which was located at 4715 North 15th Street. Today, the old school building is occupied by the Capital Hospice in-patient unit. Woodlawn School was merged into the H-B Woodlawn school in Cherrydale in 1978.

HAIRCUT WAR - 1977

By Lynn Darling

Washington Post
April 24, 1977

About 40 Arlington firefighters and the County Board got together to discuss hair lengths yesterday and, while the issue wasn't resolved quite as decisively as the Samson v. Delilah encounter, it managed to generate nearly the same intensity.

For about a month now, the country firefighters have been under orders to keep their hair - even when disheveled - above their ears and shirt collars under pain of suspension from the force.

Although no one has yet been suspended for non-compliance, the members of the Arlington professional mounted an energetic campaign to get the regulation rescinded.

Yesterday they went to the County Board's bi-weekly meeting armed with a lawyer Firefighters' Association have from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), about 50 formal grievances filed by members of the force and a petition signed by more than 1,000 Arlington County residents protesting the regulation.

The Controversy also brought a letter of support from Arlington Del. Ira M. Lechner and a message from Del. Marry A. Marshall (D-Arlington) delivered in person by Del. Warren G. Stambaugh (D-Arlington) who added a few words of his own. 

Marshall, Stambaugh said, asked the Board members to consider the fact the Commonwealth of Virginia was "found by long-haired cavaliers" who fled England to escape Oliver Cromwell's roundheads.

County Board meetings in Arlington are usually rather fervent affairs in which the room fills up quickly with ardent citizens who can debate trash collections and site plan amendments for hours with passionate intensity.

Throughout meetings the Board members sit benignly under the watchful eye of County Manager Vernon Ford whose impassivity has been known to remain intact through raucous laughter and righteous indignation alike.

Not yesterday, however.

Before the Board ultimately decided to follow Ford's advice that the hair regulation was an administrative matter that the Board should not take a position on, Ford found that calm reason alone would not carry him through the day.

After listening to the firefighters' lawyer, David Rosenfeld, exceed his allotted five minutes by about 20 more of the same, Ford said, "I find I just have to express this feeling.I don't want to bottle it up any longer. I feel that you (the County Board) have been abused and I have been abused (by the length of Rosenfeld's presentation) and I don't think it's right."

Rosenfeld challenged Fire Chief Robert F. Groshon's contention that the new regulations were needed to protect the men from harm while they were doing their jobs and handed out copies of other jurisdictions' hair length regulations.

These allow hair lengths at least two inches longer than the Arlington edict.

"Not one of the firemen here today wants to go into a fire and commit suicide," Rosenfeld said.

In addition, Rosenfeld said he saw a certain contradiction in the department's concern for the men's safety.

"Hair does not burn," he said. "It singes or it melts, but it does not burn."

The attorney set a strand of hair on fire to prove the point.

After the hair demonstration, Rosenfled set fire to a piece of blue cloth that he said came from an Arlington County firefighters' uniform, which was worn on the job.

The material was soon blazing in a nearby ashtray.

Groshon, on the other hand, contested the firefighters' assertion that they should be able to wear their hair in any style as long as it was covered by the liners of their helmets, shick extend slightly below their ears.

Presenting the Board with pictures of his men in action, Groshon said that the firefighters do not wear their liners over their ears on duty and that it was his job to make sure that a person carried out of a burning building isn't dropped because a firefighter's hair was on fire."

Groshon said that one reason ascribed was because "my son has long hair and I can't get him to cut it."

Groshon said, however, that he would force his son to cut his hair if he got a job with the Arlington County Fire Department.

"This is the judgment you have to make," Groshon told the Board members. It was up to them to decide, he said, "whether I'm doing my job right. We could have like mine, but I understand the men wanting to be stylish."

On the urging of the County Board both sides agreed to continue the discussions in an effort to reach a compromise.

In addition, Groshon agreed to delay suspending any firefighters who didn't comply with the order for at least five days.

On a 4-to-1 vote, with John Purdy dissenting, the Board decided not to intercede in the controversy over the fire department's hair length regulation and left the final decision to Ford and Groshon.

After it was all over, the firefighters remained hopeful that their visits to the barbershop would not soon be increasing in frequency.

"We just want to fit into our communities and not stick out of place," said firefighter Albert Stutz.

The Board went into executive session.

The boys went out for a beer. 

HOLIDAY INN - 1987

On Aug. 23, 1987, an underground transformer exploded in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn in Rosslyn, ``sending a billowing tower of flames and black smoke high into the air,'' The Washington Post reported. Firefighters expressed concern about exposure to the chemical PCB used in the transformers at the hotel at 1850 Fort Myer Dr.

JACKSON CITY

Jackson City - a notorious strip once located along the Potomac River, near the current Boundary Channel Drive and Jefferson Davis Highway - was a fire trap.

Nicknamed the ``The Monte Carlo of America,'' the settlement featured all the ingredients for a memorable night on the town - saloons, gambling houses, bordellos, vice dens and a race track.

On July 14, 1902, flames swept a row of card parlors, as The Washington Post reported:

``Fire that originated in a policy shop last night wiped out every gambling house in Jackson City, at the Virginia end of the Long Bridge. (It) was not much of a fire when it started - a bucketful of water would have quenched it - but the habitues were so absorbed at the roulette wheel and faro table that they refused to put cut the blaze.''

District of Columbia firefighters doused the flames, the shops were repaired - and the games returned.

Fire also visited Jackson City on Nov. 30, 1893, and the next day's Washington Post said:

``Monte Carlo, the notorious resort at Jackson City, is in ashes. About 11:30 o'clock last night fire broke out in one of the row of frame buildings occupied by the free and easy, and before the flames could be checked almost the entire row was destroyed. The fire started in James Wells' one-story building on the west side of the road.''

The final fire broke out in 1904 when a band of vigilantes - ``The Good Citizens League'' - cleared out the undesirable elements and set much of Jackson City alight, according to the Arlington County Historical Society.