ROANOKE, VA – A final tribute was held today for a man who spent decades answering the call for others.
“We in the fire service often talk about our brothers and sisters, but what about the fire service fathers? Tommy was definitely a father of the fire service,” Roanoke City Deputy Chief Marci Stone said during the eulogy.
In 1986, Thomas Fuqua stepped into history as Roanoke County’s first fire chief—laying the groundwork for everything that followed.
“He just knew if you wanted to be a firefighter, volunteer or career, male or female, he wanted to get to know you and talk about it,” Stone said.
But long before that, he was just a kid living across the street from the Vinton firehouse.
“His family will tell you that as a young child, he would cower under the cabinets, afraid any time he would hear the alarms or the sirens,” Stone said.
But that fear turned to passion, and he worked his way through the ranks.
“During the horrific flood of 1985, Tommy served as the Roanoke County Fire Coordinator, organizing a vital response to the community,” Stone said.
Before 1986, Roanoke County had separate volunteer fire departments. That year, they unified—and Fuqua became the first chief.
Today, Roanoke County Fire & EMS Chief Travis Griffith says his legacy still leads the department.
“That foundation that he built, we still build on today, we’re still working off of today to grow and continue what he started,” Griffith said.
His work lives on through fire education programs he developed across the state and nation.
“He developed programs that are used at the National Fire Academy that teaches students from around the world. All of us in there have taken classes with Chief Fuqua, we’ve been mentored,” Griffith said.
After a courageous battle with cancer, Chief Fuqua’s shift finally came to an end on May 24. Thursday, the bell rang one last time—signaling the close of a chapter, but honoring a legacy that will never fade.