{"id":1160,"date":"2016-11-12T17:23:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-12T17:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/?page_id=1160"},"modified":"2018-01-06T06:18:18","modified_gmt":"2018-01-06T06:18:18","slug":"lovettsville-volunteer-fire-and-rescue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/local-history\/houses-of-lovettsville\/lovettsville-volunteer-fire-and-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Lovettsville Volunteer Fire and Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"lovettsville-fire-and-rescue-ambulance-crew\"By Margaret Morton,\u00a0LoudounNow<\/em><\/p>\n

November 8, 2016<\/p>\n

More than 200 people gathered at the Lovettsville Fire and Rescue Hall on Saturday night to celebrate the company\u2019s 50th\u00a0birthday.<\/p>\n

Former Mayor Elaine Walker is a member of the 50th\u00a0Banquet Committee and said it was a \u201cmemorable evening\u201d as members of the company, including Fire Chief Rob Berka and Rescue Chief Andrew O\u2019Connell, mingled with local dignitaries, families, friends and neighbors.<\/p>\n

The banquet was prepared and served by the parents of a company member, Dick and Lisa Cope, along with their friends and family with the assistance of the Lovettsville Lions Club.\u00a0Several local businesses chipped in with flowers and other supplies.<\/p>\n

Letters of congratulation were received from Sen.\u00a0Mark Warner (D-VA), Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring\u2014who served for nine years as the Lovettsville\u2019s town attorney\u2014former state Sen.\u00a0Charles L. Waddell and from Loudoun County Fire-Rescue Services Chief Keith Brower.\u00a0County Chairwoman Phyllis Randall (D-At Large) and Supervisor Geary Higgins (R-Catoctin) attended the banquet, along with Lovettsville Mayor Bob Zoldos, Vice Mayor Tiffaney Carder, Councilwoman Kimberly Allar and Councilmen Jim McIntyre and Mike Senate.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the rescue squad component of the combined company that is the oldest, formed in August 1966.\u00a0The fire company was formed in April 1967.\u00a0The organization incorporated as the Lovettsville District Fire and Rescue Company, Inc.\u2014still its official name, although the \u201cDistrict\u201d is usually omitted.<\/p>\n

Both Walker and her husband, Clifford T. Walker, have a long history in the company.\u00a0He was an original member of the rescue squad, and she joined the auxiliary when it formed two years later.<\/p>\n

Cliff Walker, now 94, ran rescue calls for about 35 years, and was the squad\u2019s treasurer for 30 years.\u00a0He was also the second recipient of the \u201cRescue Person of the Year\u201d award, in 1971, an honor that then was given usually for most calls answered.\u00a0\u00a0Today, he is the rescue squad\u2019s oldest member.<\/p>\n

The former mayor remembered that her husband was a member of the first aid class, taught by Bob Grubb.They still have his \u201cold green instruction book with a red cross on it,\u201d she said, recollecting the squad\u2019s motto of the day\u2014\u201cYou call, we haul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elaine Walker\u2019s father, William Painter, was a Lovettsville builder who also owned a sawmill and lumber mill.\u00a0It was he who tore down the original feed store on the fire-rescue site just south of the town limits on Rt.\u00a0287.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s origins stemmed from a 1965 meeting of 12 men interested in starting a fire and rescue company in the Lovettsville area.\u00a0Prior to that, Lovettsville had to rely for fire service from neighboring towns, such as Brunswick, MD, Purcellville, or the Loudoun Rescue Squad.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, the county rescue squad was based in Hamilton, but also had units in Leesburg and Purcellville.The county squad decided to look into Lovettsville\u2019s request for a unit to be located there as well.<\/p>\n

Grubb recalled that he and Dewey Hill were allotted the task of holding the Red Cross Standard and Advanced First Aid Courses that ran from February to May in 1966.\u00a0But the county rescue squad decided the 12 Lovettsville men who had qualified to become members would have too much voting power in the parent organization, according to Grubb\u2014resulting in the formation of the Lovettsville Rescue Squad.<\/p>\n

Assistance came from many, including from Dr. George Hocker, who loaned the company its first ambulance\u2014a 1955 Ford van\u2014and stretcher, which were kept at the Lovettsville Game Club.<\/p>\n

When the combined company formed in 1967, its first fire truck was a 1947 Pumper.\u00a0Member John Lemp recalled some hair-raising fire runs on Lovettsville\u2019s bumpy one-lane back roads.\u00a0\u201cThe equipment, of course, was old and the early drivers only knew how to drive fast.\u00a0I was trying to hang onto the bar on the rear platform\u2014didn\u2019t think we would ever get there in one piece,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Lovettsville Volunteer Fire & Rescue\u2019s history, go to lovettsvillevfr.org and click on the About Us tab.<\/p>\n

mmorton@loudounnow.com<\/p>\n

http:\/\/loudounnow.com\/2016\/11\/08\/lovettsville-fire-rescue-celebrates-50-years-of-service\/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Margaret Morton,\u00a0LoudounNow November 8, 2016 More than 200 people gathered at the Lovettsville Fire and Rescue Hall on Saturday night to celebrate the company\u2019s 50th\u00a0birthday. Former Mayor Elaine Walker…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":143,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1160","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1160\/revisions\/1931"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lovettsvillehistoricalsociety.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}