Community celebrates 97th birthday of Vince Guidi, Annandale’s first paid firefighter

Vince and Jeanne Guidi

A parade of firetrucks, ambulances, and dozens of cars cruised by the home of former Annandale firefighter Vince Guidi on Annandale Road May 13 in honor of his 97th birthday. 

Guidi started volunteering at the Annandale Volunteer Fire Department, Company 8. in 1944 and was hired as the first paid firefighter at the station on July 1, 1949. He retired in 1978 with the rank of sergeant.  

Vince and his wife Jeanne sat in their front yard as drivers honked and firetrucks turned on their sirens as they drove by. The demands for social distancing during the COVID pandemic precluded an in-person gathering. The drive-by celebration was organized by his daughter, Pat Sherfey of Annandale, who owned the Annandale Florist with her husband Gary Sherfey for 45 years until they retired in 2012.  

The Annandale Fire station was built in 1941 at 7128 Columbia Pike and has been added on to several times.

Guidi told the Annandale Blogger the biggest fire he dealt with was in the 1970s and started on the seventh floor of the Parliaments apartment building in Annandale. At some point before that, he responded to the crash of a small plane at a backyard on Wayne Drive, Annandale. The two passengers died, but six children playing in a sandbox in the yard were unhurt. 

Guidi also took the first patient in the fire department’s ambulance to the emergency room at the original Fairfax Hospital.

Vince Guidi is kneeling at the left.

The fire station had a real fire dog in the early days, Guidi said. It was a Dalmatian, who used its paw to turn on the water fountain and get a drink. 

In a 2012 article in the The Watch, Guidi recalled what he enjoyed most about the fire station: “Working with a group of men well trained in their profession, spending many hours with these folks, the hard work and joyful times that were all part of being together and working as a team.”