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From bucket brigades to advanced life support: a 150-year arc
Summary
Chief Joe Mirra traces the Leesburg Fire Department's evolution from volunteer bucket brigades in 1875 to running ambulance service in the 1970s'and being an early adopter of advanced life support in the county (exact year not specified).
Fire Chief Joe Mirra told Inside Leesburg that the earliest firefighters in 1875 were neighbors who grabbed buckets and formed a "bucket brigade" to fight blazes before organized apparatus or modern communications existed. Those early methods gave way over decades to dedicated apparatus, ambulance service and formal training.
Mirra recalled that in the 1970s and 1980s the department operated ambulance service using modified vans and station wagons and said Leesburg was the first department in the county to provide advanced life support in February (the transcript does not specify the year). "Time is our enemy," Mirra said of early firefighting, explaining that quick notification and coordination were the biggest historical constraints.
