Welcome to Abingdon Fire Department
Abingdon Fire Department is located in the Historic Town of Abingdon, the County seat of Southwest Virginia’s Washington County, part of the Appalachian Region. The Department was formed in 1808 and chartered in 1949. On March 1, 2016 the Town of Abingdon hired its first full time Fire Chief. The 49 Member Fire Department is one of nine departments within Washington County covering 60 square miles of forested rolling steep rural countryside providing fire service operations for 16,000 people in our district. The Department faces the challenges of structure fire control in a small commercial district, several assisted living facilities, school buildings, small apartment complexes, several small manufacturing facilities, along with several hundred rural residences and wildland interfaces.
Past and Present Fire Chiefs of the Abingdon Fire Department
- J. E. Deaton, W. R. Sheoff Morrison, Sam Mothner – Appointed Officers of the Abingdon Fire Company – January 21, 1890
- J. E. Deaton – Elected Captain – August 8, 1890
- W. T. Baldwin – Elected Captain – January 29, 1891
- George M. Briget – Elected Chief – February 29, 1892
- J. F. Branson – Elected Chief – April 6, 1925
- S. H. Rhea – Elected Chief – 1928
- Dr. F. H. Smith – Elected Chief – August 4, 1930
- A. C. Hutton – Elected Chief – August 4, 1943 | Resigned February 7, 1944
- Robert Eden – Elected Chief – January 1, 1945 | Resigned August 7, 1950
- J. Nelson Berry – Appointed Chief – September 1, 1950
- H. M. ‘Bo’ McCormick, Jr. – Appointed Chief – January 6, 1964 | Retired June 30, 1996
- M. L. ‘Mert’ Odum – Appointed Chief – July 1, 1996 | Retired September 30, 2002
- John W. Crigger, Sr. – Appointed Chief – October 1, 2002 | Retired December 31, 2002
- Joe W. ‘Joey’ Burke, Jr. – Appointed Chief – January 1, 2003 | Retired December 31, 2013
- John F. McCormick – Appointed Chief – January 1, 2014 | Retired June 30, 2022
- Timothy M. Estes, Sr. – Appointed Chief – July 1, 2022
