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Families packed Fire Station 6 on Saturday, Oct. 11, as the Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department celebrated its centennial with fire engines, historical exhibits, safety lessons and hands-on activities during Fire Prevention Week.

Children explored ambulances, red firetrucks and sheriff’s all-terrain vehicles at 6950 Little Falls Road in Arlington. Visitors also aimed a fire hose, enjoyed refreshments and learned how to prevent fires at home.

The station is shared by the volunteer department and the Arlington County Fire Department. About 40 local volunteers serve with the FCVFD, including roughly 15 operational members who respond to emergencies as firefighters or medics. Others handle public education, payroll, training, website maintenance and additional administrative work.

So far this year, volunteers have recorded 2,047 standby hours, 2,687 training hours, 1,235 administrative hours and 109 public-education hours.

The City of Falls Church owns Station 6, a fire engine and Truck 106, with two firehouse bays reserved for the city’s vehicles. Falls Church supports operating costs, including supplies and vehicle and facility maintenance, and shares the cost of career personnel with Arlington County. Arlington maintains fire vehicles and supplies equipment through the county fire department’s logistics system.

From bucket brigades to a modern station

The open house’s historical displays traced a century of firefighting under the themes of community, courage and service.

Before the department was incorporated by the state on Feb. 27, 1925, residents relied on bucket brigades, chemical carts and early trucks. Those tools could handle small fires but offered little defense against major blazes.

In 1923, the Falls Church Committee on Fire Protection called the town’s firefighting capability grossly inadequate for a community of its size.

The town had purchased a Model T Ford known as “Old Tom” in 1914 and equipped it with chemical firefighting tanks. But when the Eagle House caught fire in 1923, firefighters could not reach the apparatus because it was buried beneath tons of lumber at the Falls Church Lumber Company in East Falls Church. The building burned to the ground.

That fire and other disasters persuaded town leaders to organize a new department and construct a proper station.

The original firehouse was built in 1934 along the boundary between Arlington County and the City of Falls Church. The Great Depression forced officials to abandon plans for an ornate, multistory building, leaving only the first floor fully completed. A rear garage for two ambulances and a two-story addition with volunteer office space came later.

That July, Frank David Hinkins was killed while responding to a false alarm. He remains the department’s first and only line-of-duty death.

After World War II, the department acquired larger motorized pumpers carrying hundreds of feet of hose and aerial ladder vehicles that could be raised, extended and repositioned. As Falls Church grew, its equipment became larger and specialized ambulances became more common.

By the end of the 1950s, Falls Church was funding Arlington County career firefighters to cover weekdays, while FCVFD volunteers handled events and weekend shifts.

The department experimented with yellow fire engines during the 1970s and 1980s before returning to traditional red vehicles in the 1990s.

By the start of the 21st century, Falls Church and Arlington County had outgrown the original station, which had two front bays for fire engines and two rear bays for ambulances. The city, county and volunteer department collaborated on a replacement that opened in 2001. The new station provided more room for apparatus, drive-through bays designed to reduce collisions and meeting space for community events.

Soon after its completion, Station 6 became a logistics center for the response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. Nearly every Arlington County station responded. Personnel were transported between Station 6 and the Pentagon while supplies were staged at the firehouse.

Today, Arlington County handles fire suppression and provides daily coverage for Falls Church with Engine 106, Truck 106 and Medic 106. The volunteer department supplies emergency medical support and public education while continuing to share the station with county firefighters.

Volunteers fill operational and administrative roles

FCVFD President Brian Miller, a Falls Church resident and full-time Microsoft product manager, has volunteered at Station 6 for nearly four years. He said the department’s approximately 40 members include about 15 operational volunteers certified to ride on emergency apparatus and cleared by Arlington County.

The remaining volunteers perform the administrative work required to operate a 501©(3) nonprofit, including treasury and secretarial duties. The organization is funded primarily through donations, with a smaller share coming from grants such as Virginia’s Four-for-Life program.

Miller said Arlington County normally has 10 career employees at Station 6, staffing a medic or ambulance unit, an engine and a ladder truck. The FCVFD can add its own ambulance when volunteers are on duty, although it is not currently staffing a fire engine.

Emergency demand varies widely. A volunteer shift might produce no calls or as many as 10, Miller said.

FCVFD ambulances ordinarily provide Basic Life Support, but a paramedic assigned to the engine can join the crew with the necessary medicines and enable it to operate at the Advanced Life Support level.

Unlike departments that keep volunteers on call, the FCVFD schedules 12-hour shifts. Day duty runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., with the night shift covering the opposite hours.

Operational applicants must undergo a medical examination, but administrative and public-education volunteers do not face physical requirements. Applicants must be at least 18 and pass a background check through the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services.

Miller joined without emergency medical experience, became an EMT and qualified as a driver. He is working toward clearance as an attendant in charge, the ambulance crew member primarily responsible for patient care.

The open house offered children a chance to encounter emergency equipment under pleasant circumstances rather than during a crisis, he said. Whole Foods and Silver Diner supplied food for the event.

Station 6 does have a fire pole, but firefighters do not use it. Miller said departments have moved away from poles after injuries including broken feet. Crews walk instead of running because responders must reach an emergency safely before they can help anyone.

Santamobile tradition requires careful planning

Administrative volunteer Jenny Quinn coordinates the department’s Santamobile, the holiday fire engine that travels through the community around Christmas.

Quinn joined four years ago after watching the Santamobile pass her home each year. A candy cane handed out during one of its visits prompted her to search online for information about joining the department. When she applied with a particular interest in the holiday program, she learned that it needed a new coordinator.

Although Quinn organizes the Santamobile, specially designated department members drive it. She said crews inspect every route in advance because the engine travels along narrow streets filled with children, fallen leaves, tree branches and overhead wires. Volunteers also run behind the vehicle distributing candy canes while Santa rides on top.

Quinn encouraged prospective volunteers to consider either operational service, which can include department-supported EMT training, or administrative work that does not require medical certification.

Department appoints its first woman chief

The FCVFD’s membership includes men and women from a wide range of professions and age groups. Some are college students, while others are approaching retirement.

Chief Kelly Brown became the department’s first woman chief in August, about three and a half years after joining. She said members who want to assume leadership positions can receive support as they progress.

Brown retired from the Army in 2021 after a career as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, she later worked in policy and international strategy and advised cabinet-level officials overseas and U.S. secretaries.

She arrived at the FCVFD without fire-service experience, earned her EMT certification and advanced through positions including training and scheduling officer and assistant chief.

Brown said the open house allowed residents to meet responders on a good day, instead of only when they were facing an emergency. She also highlighted the department’s partnerships with the Falls Church sheriff’s and police departments and the Arlington County Fire Department.

The chief issued an open invitation to potential recruits, saying the organization is continually building its pool of volunteers and is prepared to train new members.

Volunteer crews serve across the region

Justin Miller, who is not related to the department president, serves as an FCVFD trustee, vice president, operations lieutenant and EMT. The Freddie Mac tax attorney has volunteered for about six and a half years.

He joined with no formal medical training, earned his EMT certification, learned to drive the ambulance and advanced to supervising patient care. His 12-year-old daughter was among the visitors exploring the station during the open house.

Although Station 6 sits along the Arlington-Falls Church border, its crews may respond throughout Arlington as well as Falls Church, Fairfax, McLean and, under some circumstances, Alexandria. Units can receive additional calls while transporting patients or returning from Inova Fairfax Hospital.

The ambulances are monitored by GPS, as are the tablets crews use to document patient care. That allows dispatchers to locate resources and send the closest appropriate unit.

For Fire Prevention Week, Miller urged residents to identify two possible exits from every room, including windows when doors are blocked. Homes should have working smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors with charged batteries, and every household should establish a meeting place for use after an evacuation.

He also warned about fires involving lithium-ion batteries, rechargeable devices, electric vehicles and home battery-backup systems. Although those products have safeguards, damaged or malfunctioning batteries can produce serious chemical fires that are difficult to extinguish and require professional firefighters.

A volunteer recalls the Pentagon response

Life member Paul Melnick has served the FCVFD for more than 20 years in operational and administrative roles. One of his first emergency assignments came on Sept. 11, 2001, only days after he began volunteering.

Melnick was working in his law office when pages began arriving about an aircraft crash. He met other volunteers at Station 1 on Glebe Road and traveled in a utility vehicle to the Pentagon, where he spent the day supporting logistics by moving supplies and batteries.

He postponed his appointments and returned the following day to assist with salvage work, including removing water from the building. He later became a certified firefighter.

Melnick is also a longtime caretaker of Old Tom, the department’s 1914 Model T fire car.

The vehicle began as a Model T automobile chassis before being sent to France to receive firefighting equipment. It has wooden spokes and other hardwood components, a four-cylinder engine and two 25-gallon water tanks pressurized through a soda-acid reaction.

Old Tom was delivered for firefighting service in 1919 and was among Northern Virginia’s earliest motorized pieces of fire apparatus. It cost $1,500 and was reportedly paid for in three installments.

The department has rebuilt its engine, transmission and brakes and rewired the vehicle. Its controls differ sharply from those of a modern car: the right pedal operates the brake, the center pedal controls reverse and the left pedal functions as the clutch. Old Tom has only fast and slow forward settings, a throttle mounted on the steering wheel and a hand-cranked siren. Its headlights and firefighters’ torches use oil-burning wicks.

Because the vehicle is irreplaceable, teaching new drivers can be intimidating. Melnick is nevertheless training another volunteer to help drive and maintain it so the historic apparatus can continue appearing at educational events.

New recruits continue the tradition

Kaya Shibuwa, a lifeguard at George Mason University, had joined the operational side only a month before the open house. She applied, completed an interview and gained admission through a board vote.

Shibuwa hopes to earn her EMT certification and complete recruit school by the end of the summer. She has wanted to become a volunteer EMT or firefighter since middle school, inspired in part by her father’s experience as a volunteer at Virginia Tech. She also sees the department as a way to prepare for a medical career while serving the community.

For visitors, the open house combined that recruitment message with unexpected family fun. One mother, identified only as Ami, said she, her husband and their three children stopped after noticing the open-house sign while driving past.

A firefighter showed the family the equipment and compartments aboard a firetruck. They watched its ladder extend, and both the children and parents tried the fire hose. Ami said that experience may have persuaded her children that they wanted to become firefighters.

For the volunteers, the gathering offered a chance to thank the residents whose donations help support the nonprofit department—and to begin recruiting the people who may carry its mission into a second century.