THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 24, 1996 TAG: 9610230148
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WINDSOR LENGTH: 153 lines
EARLY FIRE spotters in this small town wouldn't be recognized today for the firefighting role they once played.
Instead of hard hats and bright yellow jackets, they wore conductor's caps and maneuvered freight and passenger trains along the railroad tracks that run through town.
Then, railroad engineers were taught that one of their major tasks was to scan the countryside for signs of bright red flames or unusual amounts of billowing smoke.
If the railroad men saw what they thought might indicate a fire in town or the surrounding countryside, they blew the train whistle until they felt sure the townspeople had been alerted to the danger.
But a lot of homes, businesses and timber were lost with that alarm system, Helen King says in her book ``Historical Notes on Isle of Wight County.''
Finally, after a serious fire that required the assistance of Suffolk and Smithfield fire departments, the Windsor Ruritan Club recognized that the town needed some kind of firefighting team.
That was in 1945. And James Beale, one of three Ruritans appointed to the committee to form a fire department, remembers it well.
``First, we went out and bought buckets,'' recalled Beale, 80. ``Then we found a place to store the buckets. That was the beginning.''
The Windsor Volunteer Fire Department was chartered in 1946. Today, it has grown from buckets manned with determination to save life and property to five modern firefighting vehicles, a well-equipped fire house built in 1992 on U.S. Route 460 - the main street that runs through town - and more than 40 community-minded volunteers willing to donate hours each week for meetings, training and protecting lives and property.
Beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, the Windsor volunteers will be celebrating 50 years of organization.
Except for a few serious fires, 50 years of volunteer service to the community have passed fairly uneventfully for the firefighters, recalled Mitch Hunter, a member of the squad since 1949 and treasurer since 1950. And the Windsor volunteers have one remarkable record.
``Never, as far as I know, have we ever experienced loss of life or serious injury,'' Hunter said. ``We've fought some bad fires, but we've been blessed.''
Hunter remembers some of the worst experiences, like when a peanut warehouse and grain silos in Zuni caught fire about 25 years ago. The volunteers from Windsor spent days doing the only thing they could - watching the silos burn.
``You couldn't fight the fire,'' he said. ``We poured water and poured water and couldn't get it out. We spent about a week with that fire.''
Then, a granary in nearby Walters caught fire. The Windsor volunteers called surrounding departments for help, but there was still little that could be done. Corn dust from the burning building created problems even more serious than the blaze.
``It was like an explosion every time that corn dust blew up. We stayed there for three days. It was 15 degrees most of the time, and, every time you'd cut a nozzle off, it would freeze.''
A short, formal history of the squad written in the first pages of ``7 Alarm Cuisine,'' a cookbook issued by the Windsor Volunteer Fire Department's Ladies Auxiliary in honor of the 50th anniversary, tells how the department gradually grew. The town financed the construction of a one-vehicle building soon after the department was chartered, when the first fire chief, J. Earl Kello, led the volunteers.
The building was unheated, Hunter recalled, and another duty for the firefighters was checking the truck periodically during cold weather to make certain the radiator had not frozen.
That was when each volunteer was required to donate $2 monthly to run the department. Hunter recalls more than once - when the truck was about to be pulled from the building - somebody realized the 1946 Chevrolet with the 600-gallon capacity water tank was almost out of gas and the treasury was depleted for the month.
``That's when somebody would reach in their pocket and say, `Oh, damn. Here. I got $5','' Hunter said. ``Back then, we had five pair of rubber boots and five raincoats. If you were late showing up for a fire, you wore your own clothes. And we still carried the buckets on the truck. Six hundred gallons of water didn't last long. We used the buckets and got water from wherever we could find it.''
At the insistence of some of the older members, the Windsor volunteers still keep some of the original buckets around. But things have changed from the time when firefighters entered an inferno holding onto a rope to keep up with their fellow workers.
Eventually, the fire department was housed in a more modern building and the Town Hall was next door. In 1992, the department moved into the building on the east end of town.
Five fire trucks, including the newest - a 1995 Pierce pumper with a water capacity of 2,000 gallons - fill the fire house. The firemen meet and train there, the ladies auxiliary gathers.
Chief engineer Tommy Gray, who started with the volunteers as a 16-year-old junior fireman, is proud of the record the department has maintained in recent years for responding to an average of about 140 fires a year, about 80 percent of those outside the town limits.
Gray, who works for the Virginia Department of Transportation and is usually in the area, is normally one of the first firemen to respond to a call from Isle of Wight County's central dispatching system.
``The trucks are usually out of the building within two or three minutes after we get the alarm,'' Gray said. ``And we have a good relationship with all of the surrounding fire departments when we do need help.''
Gray and Hunter agree that part of that respect is gleaned from the leadership that the volunteer squad has had over the years. When Kello's term as chief was over, the position was taken over by local businessman William B. Copeland. Copeland has been chief now for 30 years.
Hunter calls him an inspiration to his men, a public servant who would do anything to help his friends and neighbors in Windsor and the surrounding community.
``Even when Windsor is called in to help another department, you can just see things change when Willie B. gets there,'' he said. ``Nine times out of 10, because they know and respect him and they know his abilities, they'll ask him to take over.''
Copeland, Gray said, is a man of few words who shuns publicity.
``I remember one time, after a bad fire, he answered the phone, and it was a reporter,'' Gray recalled, chuckling. ``I heard him say he couldn't talk then, that the reporter would have to call him back. And then I heard Willie B. give my home telephone number.''
Copeland has run the department with an iron fist and a head sometimes ``as hard as the concrete on the floor of the bay,'' the firemen say, but he has always done it with a sense of pride in the department and the community it serves.
``This department has been successful because of the support it's gotten from the town, the county, the community and the leadership it's been lucky enough to have,'' Hunter said.
The Windsor Volunteer Fire Department has evolved today into one of the finest, most modern firefighting squads in rural Hampton Roads.
The 50th anniversary of the squad will celebrate that evolution. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
William B. Copeland has been Windsor's fire chief for 30 years.
ABOVE: An old photo shows the first members of the Windsor Fire
Department.
AT LEFT: Mitch Hunter, far left, a member of the squad since 1949
and treasurer since 1950, and Tommy Gray, chief engineer who started
with the volunteers as a 16-year-old junior fireman, hold one of the
five buckets the original squad used to fight fires.
Graphic
AT A GLANCE
What: 50th anniversary
Where: Windsor Volunteer Fire Department
When: Saturday
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - Expo/open house
1 to 5 p.m. - Food and beverages available
3:30 to 4 p.m. - Invocation and speakers
4 p.m. - Band
On sale: ``7 Alarm Cuisine,'' cookbook compiled by Ladies
Auxiliary. Priced at $10. Second cookbook, with cookie recipes from
every state, included.
OFFICERS
Chief: Willie B. Copeland
Assistant chief: Dennis Copeland
Captain: Lee Marshall
Chief engineer: Tommy Gray by CNB