by Mike Sanders mnsand@comcast.net

Station 19 in Loudoun County is located in the South Riding community, just off of Route 50. The fire and rescue station is a joint venture between Loudoun County and the Arcola Pleasant Valley Volunteer Fire Department (which also operates Station 9 in Arcola).

Station 19 has recently placed into service two new trucks – Engine 19 and Tower 19. Engine 19 is a 2007 Spartan Gladiator that was built by Ferrara. It is equipped with a 1500 gallon per minute pump and holds 750 gallons of water. The words “The Big Top” are on the cab representing Station 19’s first fire station, which was a large tent type structure that was a temporary fire station until the new station was built. The 2007 Spartan/Ferrara replaces a 1999 Seagrave engine.

Tower 19 is Loudoun’s newest truck company, organized in October of 2007. The county had on order a new Pierce tower for Station 19, but it had not yet arrived. A 1993 Pierce Arrow 100’ tower was provided to Loudoun County by Singer Associates to be used as a loaner until the arrival of the new Pierce. Once the new Pierce tower arrived, the 1993 Pierce tower loaner was returned to Singer Associates and eventually sold to Chatham, Virginia, located in Pittsylvania County, not far from Danville.

The newer Tower 19 is a 2007 Pierce Dash complete with a 95’ tower. The sign on the ladder says “Route 50 Truckin’ Company”.

Note: Engine 19 and Tower 19 are marked as “619”. As part of the metropolitan Washington D.C. area Council of Governments (COG), Loudoun County units are assigned the number “6”. Thus, Engine 19 and Tower 19 will have the designations of Engine 619 and Tower 619 when running mutual aide calls with other counties.