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LOW Fire and Rescue Company History.

When people talk about growth in Orange County, Va., Lake of the Woods automatically comes up. After all, it is a community of nearly 3000 homes where construction started in 1967 with building permits for just 11.

No wonder that the Lake of the Woods Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company is a far cry from what it was when it was founded. And yet LOW Fire & Rescue's original aims have stayed basically the same. LOW Fire and Rescue Company was incorporated under Virginia law on Aug. 23, 1971, ``for the purpose of aiding in the protection and preservation of life and property'' by maintaining ``a high degree of efficiency in firefighting and first aid.'' Also, it was to encourage teaching of the best firefighting and first-aid methods to its members and to ``secure and retain the full respect and confidence of the citizens of this community.'' In the years since, it has done all that in spades. What has changed has been the caliber of equipment, number of personnel and--at the very outset--what ``this community'' was considered to be. Lake of the Woods originated with private developers and, in its earliest years, they were responsible for fire protection. When the developers, Boise Cascade Company, turned over security responsibility to the property holders through an association, a fire service and rescue squad were envisioned just for Lake of the Woods. But almost immediately, LOW Fire & Rescue filled a need by answering calls from miles away.

In November, 1971, Orange County's Supervisors voted to give $5,000 a year to the LOW Fire and Rescue Company. That amount has grown many fold. In the last fiscal year it was $88,000. LOW Fire & Rescue annually responds to hundreds of emergencies outside LOW in Orange County, as well as in Lake of the Woods itself. Most are in its ``first-due'' area, bounded roughly by the Rapidan River on the north, the Spotsylvania line on the east, just over Route 20 on the south, and on the west, Route 611 to Burr Hill and then Route 692 and on up to the Rapidan River. Some are farther away in Orange and others--on a reciprocal basis, and depending on need--are in Spotsylvania or Culpeper Counties.

Rescue squad members in 2001 answered a record number of emergency calls inside LOW, 463, and 416 elsewhere in Orange. It was the seventh year in a row that inside-LOW calls reached new highs. The squad's total of 1,014 for all areas, while up from 943 the year before, did not set a record, however. The totals were higher in 1996 and '97, before Orange County hired some professional ambulance personnel to supplement volunteers. The professionals' presence reduced the number of calls for the all-volunteer LOW squad from elsewhere in the county, particularly from areas far from LOW. By contrast, LOW firefighters had more calls outside LOW in Orange in 2001--143--than the 87 they answered inside LOW. Their total--including Spotsylvania and Culpeper counties--was 195. A more striking contrast: The number of calls answered by the LOW fire department and rescue squad, combined, in 2001 was 12 times the number in the organization's first year.

In its infancy, LOW Fire & Rescue had one fire engine, a 32-year-old truck that had been rebuilt. Its one ``ambulance'' was newer--a '69 station wagon in which rescue equipment had been installed. But it shortly added equipment: two Mack fire trucks, one built in 1952 and the other in 1955. Today it has much more equipment, most of it far less antiquated. There are three ambulances and a rescue squad first-response vehicle that supplements them. There are three fire trucks, a brush truck, a crash truck, a chief's car, a hazardous materials trailer, and a boat for water rescues.

When LOW Fire & Rescue got started--it actually did so some months ahead of incorporation--it had eight active members. Most had paying jobs as guards on a force formed to control access to LOW and provide security for its residents. Not long afterward, the property holders association contracted out security to a private organization, and the link to security guards was severed. (But not completely; several Fire & Rescue volunteers today are also paid, part-time Lake of the Woods guards.)
By 1977 there were 37 volunteers. By 1986 the figure was 50. Today it is more than double that.

Over the years the names have changed. Originally, LOW Fire & Rescue had a 21-member board of directors, plus a president and a chairman. Today its board totals nine, including a president. It has not had a chairman since 1978. In the first year the chairman was John Ostby; the president, Dick Prescott; the fire chief, Lee Lubore; the rescue captain, Clifford Ruffner. Bob Kitchen was the first holder of the presidency (he held it for 11 years) after the chairmanship was abolished. Then as now, some prominent members of the organization were not Lake of the Woods residents, although living close enough to Fire & Rescue headquarters to meet emergency response-time requirements. One was Lubore, the first fire chief. Another was another early fire chief, Sonny Washington. During the 1990s, Washington loomed large in the thinking of Fire & Rescue's board of directors, although he had not been part of the organization for years. That was because he owned and lived on an acre off Route 3 that bordered Lake of the Woods property, specifically Fire & Rescue headquarters.

The headquarters comprised a two-story fire house and one-story rescue building on land leased at token rent from the Lake of the Woods Association. Fire & Rescue needed to expand. There wasn't room for some fire department vehicles in the fire house; they sat outside in all weather. The rescue squad building was barely adequate for the squad's vehicles. The squad's training sessions had to be held in the same room where fire department meetings were held, producing schedule conflicts. Adequate wash up facilities were lacking. After several years of off-and-on negotiations, Fire & Rescue bought Sonny Washington's property in 2000. The residence has been burned down in a firefighter training exercise, and the lot has been cleared, but assorted legal technicalities--now cleared up--have delayed construction. The property is to be the site of a new, larger fire house. The present fire house is to be remodeled for the rescue squad, giving it more space, too. The present rescue building's future is uncertain, but it is presently scheduled to remain in Fire & Rescue's hands.

Fire & Rescue vehicles have always had direct access to Lakeview Parkway, the Beltway of Lake of the Woods. Once construction is completed, they will also have direct access to Route 3, instead of being required to reach it via a community entrance/exit.
The property purchase and construction involve major expenditures over and above regular Fire & Rescue costs, which are not inconsiderable in themselves. But a high level of community support makes those expenditures practicable.

When people contribute to the annual Fire & Rescue fund drive, their checks often carry a message like ``thanks for a great job'' on the memo line. Sometimes a letter accompanies the check, expressing gratitude for firefighters' or ambulance crews' dedication, competence, and kindness. Said one: ``Without you... I don't know what the residents of LOW and the surrounding areas would do.''

As its 1971 articles of incorporation promised it would, LOW Fire & Rescue has community residents' ``full respect and confidence.''