Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is working to rescue a person “trapped on the rocks” near a trail in Scott’s Run Nature Preserve.
The “low-angle rescue” was underway as of 4:50 p.m., according to the fire department’s Twitter account. So far there’s no word on the nature of the patient’s injuries, though initial reports suggest that the patient was found near a creek and rescuers are worried about him or her becoming hypothermic.
An ATV, a stokes basket and spotlights are reportedly being utilized as part of the rescue operation.
The nature preserve abuts Georgetown Pike, the Capital Beltway and the Potomac River.
Update at 5:30 p.m. — The victim has been carried out of the woods, according to scanner traffic.
Units on scene 7400 Georgetown Pike with one patient trapped on the rocks off the trail. Crews attempting low-angle rescue. Unknown injuries. #fcfrd #news pic.twitter.com/p5PEgtyfbZ
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) November 21, 2018
Photo via Fairfax County Park Authority. Map via Google Maps.
Toys for Tots Campaign Begins Today — “The Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department is accepting donations for the Toys for Tots campaign from Nov. 19 to Dec. 12. Individuals can drop off new, unwrapped toys at any county fire station during the period. Last year, the initiative resulted in the collection of more than 14,000 toys.” [InsideNova, Fairfax County Fire & Rescue]
Dancing Stars Gala Raises >$250K — “On Nov. 10, the fifth annual DC’s Dancing Stars Gala netted more than $250,000 for local charities, bringing the event’s 5-year total to $1.3 million. The event was hosted by co-founders and co-chairs Maria Coakley David and Jim David at The Ritz-Carlton, Tysons Corner and featured seven local Celebrities, four Corporate Challenge Dancers and one Alumni Dancer who have spent the past several months training for Saturday night’s performance.” [Fairfax Times]
Vienna Planners Urge Developer to Save Cabin — “It’s not technically a certified historic structure, but the log cabin at 307 Cabin Road, S.E., in Vienna gave the street its name and was built by an African-American. The Vienna Planning Commission on Nov. 14 unanimously recommended the Vienna Town Council approve plans by Signature Properties to build a two-house subdivision on the 0.52-acre property, but urged the developer to work with local history advocates to save the cabin, if possible.” [InsideNova]
Reminder: Change Your Clocks and Smoke Alarm Batteries — “We move our clocks back one hour early Sunday morning. You also need to remember that when you change your clock, our firefighters and paramedics want you to check your smoke alarms to ensure they are working.” [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue]
Rainy Weather Prevented Paving in Vienna — The Town of Vienna “was unable to complete about $100,000 worth of paving and pavement marking work earlier this year because of poor weather, said Finance Director Marion Serfass.” [InsideNova]
100th Birthday Party in McLean — “Ann Ames Groves Gurman, formerly of Arlington and now living at Vinson Hall Retirement Community in McLean, celebrated her 100th birthday last weekend. Born on Oct. 26, 1918, Ann Ames grew up in Arlington. She was Miss Arlington in 1936 before going off to college. ” [McLean Connection]
One week after a fire gutted the abandoned Marco Polo restaurant on Maple Avenue, there’s still no answer for what caused the blaze.
At a Town Council meeting on Oct. 15, Vienna Chief of Police James Morris said the fire was reported around 2 p.m. on Sunday, and by 3:16 p.m. the flames under control. The building was vacant and there were no injuries in the fire, but the building itself is a complete loss.
Morris said throughout the week there have been complaints of kids hanging around gawking at the site. Even when the building was intact though, Morris said there was some unsavory activity at the site.
“The property itself has had broken windows and significant vandalism of buses in the back lot. There has been a lot of activity around that building.”
Battalion Chief Willie Bailey said it’s not uncommon for fire investigations to take over a week, with variables being size of the structure and the level of damage.
Before the fire, the building had been planned for demolition to make way for a new development approved on May 7 this year.
The site has been home to a number of buildings since 1900, but the recently-burned one had been located there since 1954. Local developer Doug D’Alexander applied to have the lot redeveloped in 2015, but a protest petition meant the Town Council would have to vote 6-1 in favor of development. In the end, the development fell one vote short.
D’Alexander returned in 2017 with a more scaled down version of the development called Vienna Market. The new development would consist of 8,200 square feet of retail space with 44 townhouse condominiums. The development was unanimously approved at the meeting.
Tysons Reporter was unable to reach D’Alexander, so the timeline for the development and the impact of the fire on redevelopment plans are currently, like the cause of the fire, still unknown.
Painted Benches Coming to Vienna — “In honor of the Vienna Arts Society’s upcoming 50th anniversary in 2019, artists from the group will decorate 41 wooden benches that will be placed around the town for six months next year.” [InsideNova]
Free Lyft Rides for Halloween — “Offered by the nonprofit Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP), the 2018 Halloween SoberRide program will be in operation beginning at 10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 and continue until 4 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 28, as a way to keep local roads safe from impaired drivers during this traditionally high-risk holiday.” [McLean Connection, Washington Regional Alcohol Program]
Macy’s Hiring for Holiday Season — “As the Christmas shopping season approaches, Macy’s will be hiring seasonal staff at the two Tysons Corner locations. Hiring events will be held from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18.” [Patch]
Fairfax May Legalize Hedgehogs — “Having a chinchilla, hedgehog or hermit crab in Virginia’s Fairfax County makes you a scofflaw, but that could soon change. The Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to advertise a public hearing on changes to the definitions of ‘commonly accepted pets’ that can be kept without special, individual permission from zoning authorities.” [WTOP]
VA-TF1 Hurricane Deployment Update — “On October 14th the team was relocated to Jackson County, approximately 40 miles north, northeast of Panama City where they continue to work today. The team is conducting wide-area searches including detailed searches of damaged structures.” [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue]
(Updated 10:45 a.m.) — Lieutenant Eddie Payne, a firefighter at Station 1 in McLean, was recognized by the Sons of the American Revolution’s George Washington Chapter on Monday, Oct. 15 with a Fire Safety Award for his role in a dramatic rescue this summer.
On June 20, the Beltway came to a standstill as a tractor-trailer driver crashed into construction vehicles working on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The driver was killed and four of the vehicles caught fire, closing the bridge and clouding the sky with smoke.
Three construction workers were in a bucket under the bridge, attached to a boom truck that was caught in the accident, and were trapped as several local fire departments worked together with boat crews to rescue them.
Payne was off-duty at the time but stepped in to help coordinate the rescue of the workers. Bill Delaney, a public affairs officer for Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, said Payne happened to see the chaos and was one of the first to try to get everyone organized.
“He called it in and was in communications with the 911 center to let them know what they were coming into,” said Delaney. “He was helping to coordinate what was going on while he was off-duty.”
Firefighters from Fairfax Station 11 near Alexandria and stations in Washington, D.C. and Prince George’s County also received awards for their efforts.
“He took control of a very chaotic scene and kept a level head,” said the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in a Facebook post.
The former Marco Polo restaurant in Vienna went up in flames Sunday afternoon.
A fire broke out in the vacant building at 245 Maple Avenue W. shortly before 2 p.m. A second alarm was sounded as firefighters worked for around an hour to get the blaze under control.
Firefighters from around Fairfax County and as far away as Arlington battled the flames. The Vienna Volunteer Fire Department also assisted at the scene.
Photos posted online show firefighters using ladder trucks and water cannons as heavy smoke billowed from the restaurant’s roof.
It’s unclear what caused the fire as the building was reportedly vacant. No injuries were reported.
The building has been discussed as a possible site for redevelopment, though thus far no solid plans have been revealed.
https://twitter.com/Windows95C/status/1051550180519174145
https://www.facebook.com/viennavfd/posts/10155693060136643?__xts__[0]=68.ARAUYjda7gKeVfrdl_ZHLUwm716fi9hg-hkJp8c8QMs34XAs-LvJpPGRmyX2QkPf0mJaXoD2gE-Jl96es3Tj5gKx_8vv3AifGvrIaNIPQjUVjMY8zdz1nd8icWpuou_NEZrmJmKyzopo6Rkb8IJUm3XvuEw0VMRKSC3jFo4c7jswKDwXAtFAJVA&__tn__=-R
UPDATE 200 block Maple Avenue West: The fire is under control. The structure was vacant at the time of the fire. pic.twitter.com/9J0PMOcdg7
— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) October 14, 2018
Photo (top) via Vienna Volunteer Fire Department/Facebook
To mark Fire Prevention Week, fire stations all across Fairfax County will be opening their doors to the public this weekend.
From 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 13, every fire station in Fairfax will be open, with members of the public invited to meet firefighters, see the fire trucks, participate in activities and learn about fire safety.
Fire stations inside our coverage area include:
- Fire Station 1 in McLean (1455 Laughlin Ave.)
- Fire Station 29 in Tysons (1560 Spring Hill Road)
- Fire Station 13 in Dunn Loring (2148 Gallows Road)
- Fire Station 2 in Vienna (400 Center Street)
- Fire Station 30 in Merrifield (8739 Lee Highway)
For those in Tysons, it will also be a chance to wish your local Fire Station 29 a happy 40th birthday.
A map of all Fairfax County fire stations is available online.
Photo via Twitter
Hopefully, the firefighters of Station 29 will never have to use their familiarity with new high-rise buildings across Tysons. But just in case, the crew has been spending the last few weeks exploring the unfinished interiors of Tysons’ tallest structures.
Captain David Bentley from Station 29 said it’s useful for firefighters to take a look inside the buildings before the drywall and the finishing touches are added to see how the buildings are structured and to understand the layout.
“If there’s an emergency, when it’s finished or during construction, this way it will be easier for us to get to patients,” said Bentley. “We need to know how the floors are made, what the ceiling looks like, and what’s between the drywall.”
At The Boro, for example, Bentley said they’re using aluminum studs in the walls while many smaller construction projects use wood. While wood burns when exposed to direct flame, or can smolder and fail over time, Bentley said aluminum studs fail quicker because they start to warp when exposed to intense heat. Bentley said information like that helps firefighters understand how much time they have to continue working to extinguish a fire safely or rescue people from the building.
One of the most interesting buildings Bentley said they visited was the new 31-story Capital One tower, the tallest building in the greater Washington area.
“It’s an absolutely amazing building,” said Bentley. “The sheer number of people working there, elevators, and security, it’s all absolutely amazing… Some of these bigger [buildings have fire pumps that run up to the top floor, and the size and amount of these pumps are quite large and they have to have a backup in case they fail. They have five massive diesel generators the size of cruise ship engines to keep the place running.”
One of the unique features of the new Capital One building is a fire suppression device that rolls over the escalators like a conveyer belt and seals them off, which both stops the fire from spreading to higher floors but also cuts off a route of ingress or egress for those needing to get to or away from the fire.
“I’ve never seen that before,” said Bentley. “It would definitely cut off a route, whether we need to go up or down, but it’s meant to stop vertical fire spreads. There are plenty of other exits in that building and I’m sure security has pre-plans, but that’s definitely a unique challenge.”
Bentley said the sheer verticality of these buildings presents a challenge as well. While Bentley says firefighters can respond to most emergencies in downtown Tysons in five minutes, getting the right equipment to the right floor can take twice as long. Once inside, maneuvering around the building in an emergency situation can be difficult as well, as evidenced by the dramatic rescue via construction crane last month.
“We practice a lot,” said Bentley. “We have drills once a week on high-rise operations. We assign people on different apparatus to different tasks. Paramedics will grab one length of hose to take to the fire floor. The firefighter on the right side of the engine will grab another section of hose. I’ll grab the officer’s bag, which has tools to hook into pipes. This way we can take any hose down any hallway to get to the fire.”
Bentley says the crew of Station 29 visited the Boro (8301 Greensboro Drive) and the Capital One building (1600 Capital One Blvd) and older buildings like Kaiser Permanente’s Tysons Corner Medical Facility (8008 Westpark Drive) and Rotunda Apartments (8352 Greensboro Drive).
Bentley said the firefighters also travelled to low rise buildings, like Cava and Honeygrow in Pike 7 Plaza, to familiarize crews with the new small developments he says are popping up all over.
Photos via Twitter
HQ2 in Fairfax County? — Amid anticipation for Amazon’s announcement as to where it will establish its second headquarters, officials in Fairfax County are not betting the farm on it coming to the county. But even if it goes elsewhere, the local sites identified as a possible HQ2 landing spot stand to benefit from the Amazon attention. [Washington Business Journal]
Tysons People, Projects Awarded — Some Tysons people and projects were award recipients at the annual CREW D.C. awards ceremony last week. Among those honored by the organization, which brings together women in the local commercial real estate industry, were Capital One Mid-Atlantic Market Manager Sadhvi Subramanian and Meridian Group’s massive The Boro project in Tysons. [Bisnow]
Next Week: Open House at Fairfax Fire Stations — “In celebration of Fire Prevention Week, all Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Stations will be hosting an Open House on Saturday, October 13 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Stop by your local station that day to meet your firefighters, see the fire trucks, join in the activities and learn about fire safety.” [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue]
