Lynchburg Life Saving Crew

"Greater love hath no man than this: that he lay down his life for his brother."  - The Lynchburg Life Saving and First Aid Crew, Inc., motto, 1934.

On the night of March 26, 1934, a small group of 11 young men assembled in the attic of the Diuguid's Mortuary to discuss two very serious events which affected their city of Lynchburg during the winter of 1934.  The first event, which happened on the night of February 10, 1934, was a fire that broke out in the McGehee Furniture Company building.  The weather was a big problem for the firefighters that night with temperatures well below freezing.  Heavy ice coated the building, streets, fire apparatus, and the firefighters themselves. Pictures of this event are on this page (thanks to Jessee Bryant).   During the incident 6 firefighters, who were nearly frozen or became overcome by the dense smoke, were taken to the hospital.  There was no immediate treatment available at the scene of the fire. 

The second event happened on the morning of March 25, 1934, at the Lynchburg Transient Bureau, a government established facility to care for wandering men who had no food or place to sleep.  While a cook was preparing breakfast for the 200 men who were sleeping at the facility that night, a fire started in the kitchen, resulting in the most disastrous fire in the City's history to date.  A total of 22 men were burned to death and approximately 75 men were admitted to the hospital.  Many physicians were called to the hospital and every available hearse, truck, and car was put into service. 

The next day 11 young men (mostly firemen and police officers) discussed at length the recent tragedies that happened in their City and talked about the possibility of forming an organization of volunteers that would render assistance to their fellow citizens and countrymen in emergencies and life threatening situations.  It was during this meeting in 1934 that they established and founded the Lynchburg Life Saving and First Aid Crew. The original volunteer members of the Lynchburg Life Saving and First Aid Crew were: A. V. Englert, Captain; Bransford Adams, First Lieutenant: Billy Montaque, Second Lieutenant: Lawrence McWane, Sergeant; V. Howard Ford, Secretary and Treasurer; Fred McWane, Jr.; C. O. Deaner; Harold Dudley; Bill Hill; Percy Nowlin; Lewis Staton; and Marion Windley.    

Soon after the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew was created, a Board of Directors was formed.    The original charter members of the Board of Directors of the Lynchburg Lifesaving and First Aid Crew were: Fred McWane, President; Allen Watson, Vice-President; Dr. John Wyatt Davis, Jr., and Dr. W. T. Pugh, medical advisors. The first several months of the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew was dedicated to training and fundraising.  Captain Englert was the only first aid instructor who instructed the Life Saving Crew members in first aid and various types of life saving work.  While the members were learning their skills, funds were sought for equipment and operational expenses.  The very first donation to the organization was received in late March of 1934 in the amount of $25.00 from J. C. Hudgins, the Secretary and Treasurer of W. D. Diuguid, Inc.  The Life Saving Crew sponsored 2 amateur boxing matches in the summer of 1934 and the annual Bibee's Benefit Ball was given in their honor in January, 1935.  Our first fundraiser, held on our first anniversary date in March of 1935, was a huge success for that time raising $360.00 in donations from the citizens of Lynchburg.  Our second annual fundraiser in March of 1936 raised $1,762.00 in donations from the citizens of Lynchburg.  The strong financial base of the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew was established. 

The first piece of equipment:   In July of 1934, through the generosity of our friends at the Roanoke Life Saving Crew, we received our first Life Saving Crew vehicle.  The 1918 Cadillac Ambulance came equipped with enough light rescue equipment to handle most ordinary emergency cases.  Our first vehicle contained numerous first aid supplies, a Stokes splint stretcher, two army liters, splints, axes, and grappling irons.   The new Ambulance, which was painted all white and assigned to the Rivermont Fire Station, was put into service on September 16, 1934.  Other equipment was also soon acquired by the newly formed organization.  A local doctor offered his row boat, which was mounted on a trailer, for emergency use.  The gift had but one request, that the doctor could use it any time he wished to go fishing.  Historical documents note "Six inches of water are needed to be kept in the boat at all times to keep the wood swelled to prevent leaks".  Each time the boat was used, the water would be dumped out of the boat before it was hooked to the rear of the Ambulance. 

The first official residence of the Life Saving Crew was in a room in the Lynchburg Gas Company building.  This was where the volunteer members held meetings and where training took place.  In the summer of 1934, thanks to the City Manager and the City Council, our headquarters was moved into a very large room on the first floor of the City Hall Annex, located at 11th and Church Streets.  On January 15, 1935, the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads was created in Roanoke by the Roanoke, Salem and Lynchburg Life Saving Crews.  The organizational membership consisted of 10 Virginia volunteer rescue squads with the purpose of promoting and developing additional rescue squads in the state.  The first annual association convention was held in Lynchburg on September 28, 1935.  In February of 1935, the 1918 Cadillac Ambulance became inoperative.  The Life Saving Crew then purchased a 1933 Dodge, half-ton, panel body vehicle from John P. Hughes Motor Company, in Lynchburg.  Since the new vehicle had a radio installed in it, the local radio station, WLVA, was used to announce emergency calls to the volunteer members in the City.  Later that same month, when the Lynchburg Police Department developed a short wave radio system, a radio receiver and transmitter were installed in the vehicle so that we were able to receive emergency response calls and keep in contact with our vehicle when it was out of the station.  The Life Saving Crew vehicle was identified as Emergency Car #99.     

On August 30, 1943, the Lynchburg Life Saving and First Aid Crew applied to the State of Virginia for a Certificate of Incorporation.  The application stated the organization's mission, purpose, objective, and business standards of operation.  The Officers of the organization and the Board of Directors signed the application document.   On October 21, 1943, the State of Virginia approved the License of Incorporation for the Lynchburg Life Saving and First Aid Crew, Inc.  
      
       In 1948, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew moved into the new headquarters at 1216 Rivermont Avenue (Next door to Fire Station #4).  The building was a renovated store front and was the headquarters of the organization for 22 years.     
        
      In the early 1960's, the Life Saving Crew's reputation as a dedicated, professional, and successful rescue organization spread.  The Life Saving Crew was called and asked to assist with rescue efforts in disasters hundreds of miles away from Lynchburg, from a bridge collapse in Ohio, to Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia for a plane crash that took 95 lives.     

     On August 20, 1969, Nelson County, located about 30 miles north of Lynchburg, received torrential rains from Hurricane Camille.  The devastation was the result of an excess of 25 inches of rain in a 5 hour period.  The water swept away miles of roads, over 100 bridges, and over 900 buildings.  A total of 114 people lost their lives and 37 people were never found.  The damage totaled over $100,000,000.00 and the county was declared a disaster area.  The Lynchburg Life Saving Crew was represented by many members who, along with their equipment and supplies, remained in the area helping to search for survivors and victims for several weeks. 

In 1966, the members of the Life Saving Crew asked the City Council for a small piece of land to build a new headquarters.  The City Council voted to approve the request and gave the Life Saving Crew the corner property on Page Street and Memorial Avenue to build their new headquarters with the condition that the building must be completed in two years.  The total cost of the new building, $165,000.00, was completely funded by fundraising and donations from individuals and companies, using no tax payer dollars.  About half of the money raised was received from many people and companies in Lynchburg, with average donations of $35.00.  However, one citizen of Lynchburg, Miss Minnie Edmonds, donated more than half of the funds needed to build the new headquarters as a single benefactor. A memorial hangs on the wall of our headquarters building honoring her gracious and unselfish support of our non-profit agency.  On February 14, 1970, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew moved into their new headquarters.  The new facility was the finest in the area at that time.  It included 8 vehicle bays, a kitchen, meeting rooms, a bunk room, and communications center.   The Communications Center was the place where the Life Saving Crew emergency calls were received and dispatched to the members using state-of-the-art radios.   The building was dedicated on May 24, 1970.  The event was attended by the 43 members of the organization and special guests, including the City Council who had gifted the land.  The beautiful ceremony was followed by an organization open house.  The Architect for the home of the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew was J. Everette Fauber, Jr., of Lynchburg, the Consulting Engineer was M. Lymann Johnson, of Lynchburg, and the builder was the C.L. Lewis Construction Company, also of Lynchburg.  The grand-daughter of J. Everette Fauber, Jr. (Carter Fauber Jennings) was a member of the crew from1998-2005.

  On the evening of August 18, 1972, the Life Saving Crew lost its second member in the line of duty. Edwin Dudley "Buck" Hook, Jr., the Life Saving Crew Vice President and 20 year veteran of the organization, died of a heart attack on the scene of an accident involving extrication on Virginia Route 460 South in Campbell County.  Buck had responded to the scene in his own car to assist fellow Life Saving Crew Members with the accident.

The new hydraulic equipment would see action almost immediately and was put to the test in 1978.  Shortly after 5:30am on December 3, 1978, the Southern Crescent passenger train derailed in Elma, Virginia, 35 miles south of Charlottesville. The 12 car train derailment killed 6 people and injured 60 others, most of whom were trapped in the wreckage.   A total of 15 central Virginia rescue squads, including the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew, were asked to help with this tragic incident.  Members of the Life Saving Crew were among the first to respond and arrive on the scene to help the victims.  One member of the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew, Kimball Glass, who arrived on the scene of the disaster with our first crew, became the Chief Rescue Officer on the scene and coordinated the rescue efforts of the responding rescue squads.  Crews would work for three days to free survivors from the wreckage as well as recover those who had died.

In late December, 1978, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew accepted the first women applicant for membership to the organization.  Jane Blackburn, a dispatcher for the Lynchburg City Police Department, was approved by vote of the Membership and became the first women to be a member of the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew.  

In the late 1970's, the Lynchburg Fire Department began a program to establish a formal EMS division within their paid ranks.  The City of Lynchburg asked the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew if they would consider abandoning their rescue work in favor of running an ambulance service for the city.  The leaders of the crew at this time thought that this would go against the mission of the crew and dismissed the request.  In hind-sight, this was a short-sighted decision.  The City of Lynchburg would formalize their EMS division and began to staff ambulance units in the city.  The Life Saving Crew saw their role in the city diminish as EMS became the central emergency work in the city.  In the 1980's, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew lost their United Way funding when a task force decided that they had become "a duplication of services" that were already being offered by LFD.  The crew would continue to operate as a peripheral organization, responding to all calls for rescue service as well as being simultaneously dispatched to EMS calls throughout the entire city.

In 1984, the City of Lynchburg established a 911 communications center on Clay Street called Lynchburg Communications, referred to as "LYN-COM" during radio communications.  This City wide central communications system helped to establish better communications between all police, fire, and EMS services.  As soon as the 911 system became operative, the Communication Center located in the Life Saving Crew Headquarters was no longer needed and was renovated into administrative offices for the organization.

In 1990, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew saw most of their emergency medical response transferred to the paid Lynchburg Fire & EMS Department and call volume for the volunteers was cut to a trickle.  It became difficult to maintain members, but the crew managed to continue to answer calls for service for all accidents, water rescues, search and rescue calls, fires and serious EMS emergencies. The paid services of the Lynchburg Fire Department had once again marginalized the role of volunteers in the system.

In 1998, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew, seeking to find a new service niche in the City, joined with the Lynchburg Sheriff's Office as members of the Project Lifesaver Team.  This group of trained individuals used the latest tracking technology to locate Alzheimer patients who wandered away from home. 

Realizing that the role of the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew Volunteers was diminishing while calls for Emergency Medical Services were growing, the leadership of the Life Saving Crew met to consider its future and re-examine their mission.  In 1998, the Board took the unprecedented action of appointing a new Chief & Executive Director to lead the organization.  Dr. Grant L. Azdell, whose work was in non-profit management and higher education was called to serve and requested that long term member/officer Richard Ruggieri be appointed as Asst. Chief.  At the time of these appointments, the crew was in debt (more than $150,000) and was facing an identity problem with regard to their role in the City.  Chief's Azdell & Ruggieri were charged by the Board to "bring the organization back to a relevant role or close the doors".  The two leaders decided to start by getting the finances under control.  The entire debt was eliminated by 1999 thanks to the gracious support of several hand-cultivated donors.  Once the debt was eliminated, and finances were secured to support an annual budget, the leadership turned their attention to renewing their support of the emergency services in Lynchburg.

In 2004, the Lynchburg Life Saving Crew celebrated 70 years of service to the community.  During this celebration, past members assembled and marveled at how the department had come full circle.  With a second ambulance on order (2005 International MAV) and promises of new opportunities to serve by the City, the LLSC continued to expand their service to the citizens of Lynchburg.