The fire department upholds a tradition

The recently renamed Fort Buffalo Fire Station (#28) welcomed a new fire engine Oct. 31 with a “push-in ceremony.” Fire station personnel literally pushed the firetruck into an apparatus bay.

A push-in ceremony is a tradition dating to the time before there were motorized fire trucks. Back then, the crew had to physically push a hand-drawn hose cart or steam engine into the firehouse garage.

Related story: Construction of new Seven Corners Fire Station underway

The new fire truck is the station’s first piece of apparatus with the name “Fort Buffalo” on it. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved renaming the Seven Corners fire station Fort Buffalo in September.

A new fire station is being built on the site of the old one, on Sleepy Hollow Road in Seven Corners. During the Civil War, there was an earthwork fortification called Fort Buffalo on the property built by Union soldiers from New York to defend the city of Washington.

Since the Fort Buffalo Fire Station is under construction, the push-in ceremony was conducted at the station’s temporary building on South Street at Annandale Road in the Falls Church area of Mason District.