In a County of Change, a Pillar of Rural Roots

Come January, Lucketts resident James Goss will have served the Lucketts Volunteer Fire Department in some capacity for 50 years.

A lifelong Loudoun County resident, Goss knows a thing or two about his home town: He has lived within five miles of it all his life. Yet he sees the county changing around him. Having entered the fire department at age 28 in 1960, the year it was founded, Goss recalls a time when every member was an unpaid volunteer and only the most local residents -- those, like him, within five miles of the town -- were sought out for service because too many had volunteered. Now, Goss says, the slow, intensely communal way of life the volunteer department represented is giving way to a faster-paced suburban culture.

We recently sat down with Goss at his Lucketts home to discuss his service with the fire department, his recollections of its early days and his observations on the county that he has watched transform.

Q. With regard to the fire department, you have served, I understand, in about every capacity. Is that correct?

A. I have served as president and I've served as secretary and I've served as treasurer for 30 years, maybe plus; I'm not really sure about what year. But it's been 30 consecutive years, I know. I was treasurer a little time before. Then I was elected president, and somebody else was treasurer for a year or so, and I served as secretary, and I served on the board of trustees.

Before that, you were an active firefighter?

I haven't done any firefighting, going out on calls, for several years now. When it first started, they wanted anyone that could help. Now, I don't know whether it's the county, but when the county got involved we got some paid firemen. We started out with daytime paid firemen, but now we've got 24-hour paid firemen. Well, they don't want to work with you if you don't know everything, so you've got to have so many hours of schooling. You've got to have CPR, and you've got to have lots of training, 'cause they don't feel safe going into the house with somebody they don't think is qualified, really.

How did you first decide to go into firefighting?

Some of the guys got together, and they wanted to organize a fire company. They sent everybody a letter, didn't say what they wanted, saying, come to the old schoolhouse for a meeting at such-and-such a date. They told them what they wanted to do, and there were enough people interested that that's what they decided to do. They formed a charter, and they elected officers, so then we got started doing fundraisers. We did several dinners in the old schoolhouse, to raise some money.

How have you seen the fire department change during your time?

Well, [it's] almost the same as day and night, 'cause when we first started the fire company, close to half of the members were farmers, so they were home every day. Now there's not a farmer in the area, really. I mean, not a complete farmer. We've got a guy down the road, you come past him on [Route] 15, he does a vegetable stand; he grows some vegetables. But there's not a farmer in the area that, you know, does cropping and everything. Most places, they make hay and stuff like that -- corn, wheat and stuff like that.

So it's really changed. We had a maximum that we could have on roll, and most fire companies in the county would have a waiting list to get on. But now, the farm gets sold, people getting 3, 5, 10 acres; both parents work, and they've got families. They just don't have time to do the training and schooling that they want you to do.