Sirens’ call: Arlington fire chief’s vigilance has never wavered

Published 11:24 pm Sunday, November 4, 2007

ARLINGTON — For 30 years, Lon Langdon has backed his pickup truck into the garage at his Arlington Heights home. He leaves it pointed toward the street in case he needs to get away quickly in the middle of the night.

If an alarm goes off, he pushes a button in his bedroom that opens the garage door.

He swings his feet out of bed, directly into the boots he sets out each night.

He’s a firefighter.

For the last 30 years, he’s served as fire chief for Snohomish County Fire District 21 in Arlington Heights. Until around five years ago, the position was volunteer. Langdon organized meetings, ran the department and responded to hundreds of calls a year without earning a salary.

Now he’s paid to work 20 hours a week. Veteran firefighter Terry Johnson says he works 40 — at least.

“He’s here all the time,” said Johnson, standing amid the station’s five trucks. “I think he’s excellent for a volunteer department. He knows just about how far you can push a volunteer. Some districts will push their volunteers and they don’t have volunteers anymore. We have 35.”

Johnson and Langdon, 66, are the last of the district’s “founding firemen” still in uniform. They started training to be volunteer firefighters in the early ’70s and began responding to calls as soon as the Arlington Heights station opened in 1974.

At the beginning, the rural district east of Arlington received just one or two dozen emergency calls a year. Now the department responds to nearly 400 calls annually.

No one in the district has responded to more calls than Langdon.

He never turns his scanner off — even at night when he’s sleeping. A retired mixer driver for Concrete Nor-West, he was known to leave construction sites as soon as an alarm went off and book it to the station.

His two grown daughters, Teresa Langdon and Michelle Alderson, remember riding in the car with their dad for hours, only to have him turn around before reaching their destination to head back to Arlington and respond to a barn fire or an accident.

The fuzz of fire scanners became such a part of life for the Langdons that when Teresa Langdon moved to Bellingham for college, she couldn’t stand the quiet and bought a scanner.

They planned family vacations around the station’s Thursday night meetings.

“It was part of our life,” said Alderson, an Edmonds teacher. “It was who our family was.”

Even now, Langdon checks with his crew before driving into town to shop. He wants to make sure if an alarm rings, someone will be there.

He’s carried children out of burning houses and fiery cars. He’s plucked people out of flooded rivers and into the department’s Hovercraft. He’s slept under his truck in Eastern Washington while waiting to relieve exhausted crews and help extinguish wildfires.

“I don’t think he realizes how much he’s touched so many people’s lives and what he’s done for this community,” said firefighter Wendy Britton, as she teared up during a station open house honoring Langdon on Sunday. “His heart and soul are here.”

Only two other men have led District 21. From 1977 on, the station’s firefighters have voted Langdon chief.

Firefighter Craig Lutz said Langdon is a straight-shooter who doesn’t hesitate to let people know when they’ve screwed up. But he’s also the first to recognize them when they do right.

He goes out of his way to make sure his firefighters know they’re appreciated, Lutz said. He bakes cookies and brings soda to the station and always has a stash of goodies for faraway calls to neighboring communities.

“This is his life,” Lutz said. “Everyone knows it’s his heart. It’s in his blood to do it. This department couldn’t ask for a better chief.”

Gayle Langdon has seen what her husband of 19 years has given to the community and wasn’t that surprised when some 200 people showed up at the open house Sunday. Lon Langdon seemed a little overwhelmed.

Weary of attention, Langdon gives his crew credit for fires fought and lives saved.

“I love doing it and that’s all I can say,” he said, red-faced. “I love the people I work with. To me, it’s been a lot of fun and still is. I’ll keep going as long as my health holds up and lets me.”

He’s a firefighter.

It’s what he does.

Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.