Summer weather floods Arlington

A rash of summer storms have left numerous locations in Arlington without power and under several feet of water. Since Sunday morning at midnight, Arlington has received 9.4 inches of rain. On Sunday and Monday nights, volunteer crews put LA103 and UT106 in service to answer public service calls (wires down, flooded basements, etc.). LA103 was even put on a medical call, not its normal forte. The communications center didn't have a local engine, so the call came over the air, "Arlington to LA103. Do you have medical capability?" Sure enough we do, so the unit responded for the sick person with a County medic unit. All told, LA103 and UT106 ran around 30 calls during the two nights, most of them on Sunday. The crews for the two nights included Tony Schloss, Justin Kirby, Joe Lowry, Sam Azar, Jim Clarke, Steve Sissler, Scott Pardi, Sarah Greer, Rob McCarry, Bill Haley, and Paul Schomburg.

CVFD at Indoc

On Saturday and Sunday (6/24 and 6/25), the rain couldn't stop the two new members of the CVFD from particpating in the hose load sections of the Indoc class at the Fire Training Academy. A member of Co. 6, Charles Frey, was there taking pictures of the day. CVFD FF-R Joe Lowry was on hand as an assistant instructor. Tony Schloss and Robin Davis were the lead instructors.


Baber and Sorenson on the pipe. Here they are learning how to work with an 1.75-inch hose line.


Leading the rehab sector with Dan Neumann (Co. 6), Lowry looks good under the tent.


Working the pipe, Part Duex.


Light and Air 103 is on the job. After the work, Frey took this picture of the LA unit.

One dead at N. Edgewood Fire

With volunteer firefighters Eric Lekus and Joe Lowry aboard, ECC dispatched Engine 103 to the 2400 Block of North Edgewood Street for an outside fire. Upon arrival the crew found a bird nest on fire inside a street lamp 30 feet above the street level. Once Truck 104 pulled the nest down, the fire was extinguished with Lekus on the 'line'. Despite the efforts of all involved, a young nestling succumbed to injuries sustained in the fast moving nest fire. Units were out for 30 minutes.

Photo and story context by Captain Randy Higgins, 103-C

LA103 kept busy over the weekend

For Light and Air 103, anything more than one call per week is considered busy. This weekend, we responded to two calls for service and were unable to make a third because we were still working the second. Besides being a great lighting and SCBA replishment vehicle, LA103 has extensive salvage and overhaul capabilities. The first call was Friday, June 2 for a blown sprinkler head on the 16th floor of the Hyatt Hotel on Wilson Blvd. in Rosslyn. The crew of Ambulance 102 placed their unit out of service in order to staff LA103. Joe Lowry, Jim Clarke, Paul Schomburg and James Fortner worked this call for two hours removing water from two floors of the hotel. The second was Sunday, June 4 at 4300 S. 29th Street, Arlington County's street sign department, next door to the fire training academy. A broken pipe on a water cooler kept the crew of Joe Lowry, Jim Clarke and Tony Schloss busy. Between the two calls, we put in almost four hours of water removal. As we were clearing S. 29th Street, we were requested by Command at a structure fire in Falls Church. Unfortunetly we could not clear the street department in time to make the fire. Too much work, not enought time.

Photo of LA103 by James Fortner, taken during the 2001 FFI/II class.